LIBRARY 


University  of  California. 


GIF^T   OK 


Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH 

Received  October,  1894, 
Accessions  No. ,^2^^-      Class  No. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/discoursesOOIiverich 


DISCOURSES, 


BT 


ABIEL  ABBOT   LIYEBMORE, 


CINCINNATI,   OHIO. 


^A   OF  THJ^'^C;^ 

Hihiteesitt; 

BOSTON: 

CROSBY,    NICHOLS,    AND    COMPANY. 

NEW    YORK: 
CHARLES  S.  FRANCIS  AND  COMPANY. 

1854. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 
A.     A.      LiVERMORE, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALP  AND  COMPANY,  PRINTERS  TO  THE  UNIVERSITY. 


CONTENTS 


DISCOURSE  I. 

PAGE 
THE  DIVINITY,  SUFFICIENCY,  AND  PERPETUITY  OF  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN RELIGION 1 


DISCOURSE  n. 

THE  MANNER  OF  BBYELATION 34 

DISCOURSE  III. 

REVELATION  AND  REASON  .  .  .     ' 53 

DISCOURSE  IV. 

THE  FAITH  ONCE  DELIVERED  TO  THE   SAINTS  ...        75 

DISCOURSE  V. 

THE  LETTER  AND  THE  SPIRIT 96 


VI  CONTENTS. 

.      DISCOURSE  VI. 

THE  CONQUEST   OF  EVIL 110 

DISCOURSE  VII. 

THE    FROMISB 130 

DISCOURSE  VIII. 

THE  soul's  want   OF  GOD 150 

♦        DISCOURSE  IX. 

BE   STILL  AND   KNOW  GOD  . 164 

DISCOURSE  X. 

UNION  with   god   and   MAN 176 

DISCOURSE  XL 

THE   birth  of  JESUS 192 

DISCOURSE  xn. 

THE   THREEFOLD   CHRIST 208 

DISCOURSE  XIII. 

THE  FULNESS  OF  CHRIST 230 


CONTENTS.  VU 

DISCOUESE  XIV. 

JESUS  THE  BE-CBEATOR 245 

DISCOTTRSE  XV. 

GROUP  OF    THE   CRUCIFIXION      .  .  .  .  .  .  .     259 

DISCOURSE  XVI. 

SELF-CREATION 277 

DISCOURSE  XVII. 

UNION  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE 291 

DISCOURSE  xvni. 

THE  BLESSINGS  OF  A  DAT 312 

DISCOURSE  XIX. 

CHRISTIANITY  A  WANT   OF   CIVILIZATION  ....     329 

DISCOURSE  XX. 

RELIGION  A  NECESSITY 340 

DISCOURSE  XXI. 

RELIGION  IN  ITS  FOURFOLD  EXPRESSION  ....     355 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

DISCOURSE  xxn. 

CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE 375 

DISCOURSE  XXIIL 

WISDOM,   LAW,  AND   FAITH 396 

DISCOURSE  XXIV. 

I   WOULD   NOT   LIVE  ALWAT 412 


Iuhitbksitt; 

DISCOURSE    I 


THE   DIVINITY,  SUFFICIENCY,  AND   PERPETriTY    OF 
THE  CHRISTI.^  RELIGION. 

JESUS  ANSWERED  AND  SAID  UNTO  HER,  WHOSOEVER  DRINKETH 
OF  THIS  WATER  SHALL  THIRST  AGAIN  :  BUT  WHOSOEVER  DRINK- 
ETH OP  THE  WATER  THAT  I  SHALL  GIVE  HIM  SHALL  NEVER 
thirst;  BUT  THE  WATER  THAT  I  SHALL  GIVE  HIM  SHALL  BE 
IN   HIM   A  WELL  OP   WATER    SPRINGING    UP    INTO    EVERLASTING 

LIFE. —  John  iv.  13,  14. 

When  art,  science,  literature,  or  government  is 
revolutionized,  religion  always  feels  the  shock.  For, 
entering  as  a  component  part  into  the  structure  of 
society,  when  other  members  suffer,  it  suffers  with 
them ;  and  when  other  members  are  honored,  it  re- 
joices with  them. 

Thus  the  conversion  of  Constantino,  the  Roman 
Emperor,  in  the  fourth  century,  which  led  to  the 
adoption  of  Christianity  as  the  national  religion 
instead  of  Polytheism,  entirely  changed  the  existing 
form  and  operation  of  the  Gospel.  What  Rome 
gained,  Christianity  seemed  to  lose.  Jesus  became 
but  a  species  of  Jove  of  the  Capitol.  The  sacred 
ordinances  were  drowned  in  heathenish  rites.  The 
1 


2      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

living  were  tied  to  the  dead.  The  New  Testament 
became  the  hand-book  to  a  corrupt  court  and  world- 
ly policy.  And  the  effect  survives  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  to  this  day. 

The  next  mighty  movement,  the  Crusades,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  committed  the  religion  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace  to  a  warlike  and  persecuting  career. 
This  turned  the  cross  into  the  crescent  for  the  time 
being,  and  made  Christ,  the  suffering  Son  of  God, 
the  conquering  Mahomet,  with  the  Bible  in  one  hand 
and  the  sword  in  the  other.  This  discord,  too,  is 
still  heard  in  the  music  of  the  Church.  The  fatal 
virus  has  circulated  far  in  the  veins  of  belligerent 
Christendom. 

The  Reformation  of  Martin  Luther,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  again  broke  the  slumber  of  ages 
with  a  new  day.  The  Gospel  was  then  committed 
to  a  higher  form  than  worldly  policy  or  a  warlike 
propagandism.  It  was  embodied  in  intellectual  dog- 
mas, creeds,  confessions  of  faith.  Reason,  individu- 
alism, dissent,  asserted  their  claims.  The  Church 
began  to  return  to  the  Bible,  from  whose  living 
stream  it  had  been  cut  off  by  the  rubbish  of  tradition. 
The  Scriptures  were  read,  though  it  was  through  a 
glass,  darkly.  In  Calvinism,  the  night-side  of  human 
nature  found  expression.  Reason  raised  terrible 
questions,  which  reason  could  not  answer.  This 
dogmatic  era  has  also  woven  its  stiff  fibre  into  the 
web,  and  we  can  trace  it  to  this  day. 

But  the  motto  of  all  human  affairs  is,  "  Overturn, 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN     RELIGION.  6 

overturn  "  ;  and  there  came  another  general  breaking 
up  at  the  period  of  the  American  and  French  revo- 
lutions, in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  but  a  step, 
to  pass  from  questioning  prescription  in  the  State  to 
questioning  it  in  the  Church.  The  transition  from 
no  king  to  no  bishop,  was  short  and  logical.  Man 
even  took  his  stand  outside  of  the  Bible  itself, 
weighed  the  volume  in  his  hand,  said  it  was  not  a 
very  great  book  after  all,  —  was  but  little  heavier 
than  Aristotle's  Ethics,  or  Cicero's  Colloquies.  The 
reason  of  Luther's  time  had  ripened  into  the  philoso- 
phy —  falsely  so  called  —  of  the  French  and  English 
Deists.  When  thrones  fell,  the  altar,  close  by,  reeled 
at  the  shock. 

In  this  instant  and  living  present  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  however,  we  are  lifted  up  and  borne  on  the 
ground-swell  of  another  stupendous  revolution.  Chris- 
tianity feels  the  immense  force,  because  it  has  grown 
into  art,  science,  literature,  and  government,  as  a  uni- 
versal principle.  It  is  not  worldly  power,  as  under 
Constantine,  or  war,  as  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades, 
or  human  reason,  as  in  Luther's  day,  or  specula- 
tive philosophy,  as  in  the  period  of  the  French  En- 
cyclopedists, but  science,  and  science  applied  to  art, 
that  now  makes  a  new  point  of  departure  for  human 
society,  and  of  course  for  Christianity.  The  other 
influences  still  endure,  and  are  upon  us,  but  this  is 
the  star  of  the  ascendant. 

There  are  wonders  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  As- 
tronomy reveals  them  there,  chemistry  finds  them 


4        THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

here.  We  recover  from  the  surprising  discoveries  of 
the  telescope,  only  to  fall  into  new  wonder  at  those 
of  the  microscope.  The  old  interjections  are  not 
strong  enough  for  these  days  of  astonishment.  But 
man  is  getting  so  nicely  accommodated  in  his  house 
on  earth,  and  has  such  power  over  matter  and  its 
forces,  can  ride  the  sea,  the  land,  the  air,  so  victori- 
ously, that  he  is  becoming  a  little  heady  and  self- 
willed,  and  forgetting  the  rock  out  of  which  he  was 
hewn,  and  the  pit  whence  he  was  digged.  The  sen- 
timent of  reverence  is  drained  off  in  other  directions. 
Revelation  is  taken  down  from  the  everlasting  heights, 
where  it  was  kindled  and  set  by  the  hands  of  God, 
and  is  found,  on  examination,  to  be  a  candle  lighted 
by  man,  and  raised  from  the  earth. 

But  as  you  have  seen  the  moon,  when  the  sky  was 
overcast  by  ragged  clouds,  "  walking  in  brightness," 
and  sailing  by  them  with  an  unshorn  beauty  and  an 
unshaken  serenity,  so  does  Christianity  pass  through 
all  revolutions,  observations,  and  eclipses,  only  to 
beam  with  the  same  eternal  light,  and  yield  the  same 
beautiful  guidance  to  the  benighted  traveller. 

Religious  institutions,  phraseology,  and  books  are 
effected  by  these  changes  ;  but  the  Bible  stands,  the 
Church  survives,  the  Father  finds  worshippers,  the 
Saviour  disciples,  heaven  receives  emigrant  saints ; 
and  though  the  very  heavens  and  earth  pass  away, 
yet  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  appear,  wherein 
more  and  more  dwelleth  righteousness.  The  diffu- 
sion of  the  Gospel  in  extent,  and  the  depth  of  its 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  O 

power  in  life  and  character,  were  never  greater  than 
after  nineteen  centuries  of  action  and  reaction. 

But  again,  as  the  great  world  has  its  periods,  so 
does  the  little  world  of  each  man's  heart.  We  live 
in  the  microcosm,  what  the  wprld  lives  in  the  ma- 
crocosm. The  infinite  law  is  in  a  dew-drop,  as  much 
as  in  the  Atlantic. 

In  childhood  we  receive  religion  implicitly,  and 
say  our  prayers  at  our  mother's  knee  without  a  seri- 
ous doubt.  Tender  and  holy  indeed  is  that  sense 
of  home  piety.  Cowper  writes  immortal  lines  on 
it,  that  bring  the  tears  now.  John  Randolph  says 
it  was  all  that  kept  him  from  the  infidelity  of  Rous- 
seau and  Voltaire.  Daniel  Webster  writes  under 
the  maternal  portrait,  "  My  excellent  mother." 

But  in  youth  we  begin  to  question.  The  world 
has  a  stern  discipline.  Faith  for  a  time  suffers 
eclipse.  A  love  of  independence,  and  a  curiosity 
after  the  new  and  untried,  make  us  dissenters  from 
the  good  old  ways  of  the  past.  The  placid  lake  of 
the  morning,  smooth  mirror  of  heaven,  is  ruffled  by 
rising  gales,  and  for  a  time  the  Divine  image  is 
lost. 

But  manhood  is  strong.  It  grasps  the  realities  of 
things  with  a  firm  hold,  and  recovers  the  lost  faith  of 
childhood.  The  lake  that  was  smooth  in  the  morn- 
ing grows  smooth  again  towards  night.  John  Quin- 
cy  Adams,  white  with  the  snows  of  years,  and  bent 
by  the  tempests  of  state,  repeats  still,  as  he  did  of 
old  at  his  mother's  knee,  before  his  nightly  rest,  — 
1* 


6       THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

^'  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep ; 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take." 

In  the  world,  then,  and  in  the  individual  experi- 
ence, we  are  to  expect  to  meet  questioning,  doubt, 
even  stern  denial.  This  always  has  been,  and  always 
will  be.  And  we  are  not  to  be  alarmed,  panic-struck, 
indignant,  at  these  states  of  mind,  but  calm,  gener- 
ous, appreciative,  and  charitable.  Let  doubt  have  a 
frank  expression,  and  it  will  be  sooner  cured.  But 
we  are  to  use  truth  to  convert  error  ;  not  anger,  not 
sorrow,  not  custom.  Truth  is  mighty,  and  it  will 
prevail.  Thought,  free  inquiry,  discussion,  action, 
are  what  we  should  covet,  if  we  believe  we  have  the 
truth.  The  most  lamentable  state  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  stagnation,  death.  Truth  becomes  too  ob- 
vious, —  is  taken  for  granted.  Men  sleep  over  it, 
make  the  sanctuary  a  dormitory,  nod  over  the  Bible. 
They  assert  and  assert,  and  go  away  to  live  just  as 
they  did  before.  But  a  reformer,  a  radical,  a  denier, 
comes,  and  at  his  daring  tread  the  mind  is  startled 
from  its  drowsiness.  None  can  sleep  now.  Every- 
body is  wide  awake.  Men  think  somewhat,  and  talk 
more.  Some  scold,  some  pray,  and  read  their  Bibles, 
and  wish  for  more  light ;  and  day  does  break.  It  is 
so  of  Millerism,  Rationalism,  Transcendentalism, 
Spiritualism.  A  storm  on  Lake  Erie  drives  a  steam- 
boat ashore,  and  wrecks  a  few  schooners  ;  but  it  pu- 
rifies a  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  prairie  ex- 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  * 

halation,  and  oxygenates  the  air  for  two  millions  of 
men  to  breathe.  The  intellectual  and  moral  tem- 
pests may  be  uncomfortable,  but  they  drive  at  a 
similar  end.     Let  the  winds  blow. 

Having  glanced  at  the  law  of  religious  revolutions, 
and  seen  where  we  stand,  I  have  thought  the  present 
would  be  a  good  opportunity  to  state  to  an  awa- 
kened public  attention  what  is  our  faith  in  Christiani- 
ty, as  Unitarians  generally  hold  it,  and  the  why  and 
the  wherefore.  My  remarks  will  be  grouped  under 
the  three  titles  of  the  Divinity,  the  Sufficiency,  and 
the  Perpetuity  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

1.  By  the  Divinity  of  Christianity,  I  do  not  mean 
the  Deity  of  the  person,  Jesus  Christ,  who  brought 
it  into  the  world,  but  the  divine,  superhuman  char- 
acter of  the  message  and  the  messenger.  Another 
being  than  God  can  reveal  God.  God  is  God,  arid 
Christ  is  Christ ;  but  God  is  not  Christ,  and  Christ 
is  not  God.  The  personality  of  God  is  as  distinct 
from  the  personality  of  Christ,  as  that  of  James  is 
from  John.  Such  is  "  the  doctrine  of  pronouns." 
When  we  enter  the  spiritual  sphere,  there  is  God, 
but  there  also  is  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father.  But  you  are  familiar 
with  these  opinions.  In  holding,  then,  to  the  divine 
character,  and  special  miraculous  agency  of  Christ, 
but  not  to  his  Deity,  we  agree  with  Universalists, 
Hicksite  Quakers,  and  the  Christian  Connection ; 
and  we  differ  from  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  Metho- 
dists, Episcopalians,  the  New  Jerusalem  Church, 
and  Catholics. 


8       THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

"The  divinity  of  the  Christian  religion  is  in  its 
substance  and  its  form ;  in  its  substance  the  most 
intimate  and  tender  disclosure  of  the  will  of  God, 
profounder  than  any  lessons  of  the  outward  creation, 
providence,  conscience,  or  the  soul's  intuitions,  — 
and  in  form,  special,  miraculous,  sudden.  Revelation 
is  not  contrary  to  creation,  providence,  but  addition- 
al. It  is  not  against  reason,  but  above  it,  —  a  secret 
opened,  a  mystery  made  into  a  discovery.  It  is  not 
unnatural^  for  all  we  know  of  nature  and  the  soul 
would  lead  us  to  expect  some  clearer  exposition  of 
God's  will,  and  man's  duty  and  destiny,  but  super- 
natural. It  is  clearer,  more  authentic,  more  au- 
thoritative and  conclusive,  and  it  works,  as  we  ex- 
pect it  would  if  it  were  divine,  new  spiritual  and 
moral  results  upon  mankind. 

In  one  sense,  all  nature,  all  providence,  is  divine. 
God  made  them.  God  is  in  them,  their  life,  strength, 
beauty,  and  joy.  But  revelation  is  more  divine,  a 
fuller  unfolding  of  the  Godhead,  a  nearer  approach 
of  the  finite  to  the  Infinite.  It  is  intentional  and 
articulate.  It  is  the  Word  made  flesh.  It  is  saying 
to  man  what  he  did  not  feel  and  believe  of  the 
Mighty  Maker  of  all,  I  love  you,  I  care  for  you,  and 
I  will  save  you.  This  message  is  special ;  it  opens 
to  us  the  bosom  of  God,  it  shows  us  the  heart  of  the 
Father,  it  brings  us  nigh  to  him,  when  before  we  felt 
that  we  were  far  off.  In  his  natural  condition,  to 
man's  apprehension  the  world,  life,  and  soul  are  emp- 
tied of  God.     But  in  man's  Christian  condition,  God 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  9 

flows  back,  fills  and  overflows  the  soul,  inundates 
all  things  with  his  presence  and  love,  making  the 
sun  and  moon  shine  brighter,  and  filling  home,  earth, 
heaven,  with  a  cheerful  radiance.  This  divine  sense 
of  life  we  owe  to  Christianity.  The  Greeks  and 
Romans  had  it  not,  —  not  Plato,  not  Cicero.  "We 
have  drawn  it  in  with  our  earliest  breath,  and  it  has 
grown  with  our  growth,  and  strengthened  with  our 
strength.  God  is  in  New  Holland  as  much  as  he  is 
in  the  United  States,  but  he  is  not  felt  to  be  there 
by  its  degraded  savages,  as  he  is  felt  to  be  here  by  us. 
Here  the  Deity  is  re-enthroned  over  his  works  and 
over  the  soul.  Here  man,  not  one  or  two  extra  ge- 
niuses or  philosophers,  but  masses,  millions  of  men, 
look  at  the  universe  out  of  a  different  mind  and  heart, 
and  through  the  windows  of  different  eyes.  This  is 
due,  not  to  the  natural  development  of  the  race,  but 
to  a  special  revelation ;  due,  not  to  the  nineteenth 
century,  or  any  number  of  centuries,  but  to  Christ 
and  his  Gospel. 

But  the  Christian  religion  has  other  and  impor- 
tant offices,  constituting  it  divine.  By  flooding  the 
world  anew  with  thoughts  and  feelings  of  God,  it 
would  change,  convert  the  heart,  and  thus  effect  a 
salvation  from  sin.  For  man  is  haunted,  dogged 
with  a  feeling  of  moral  unworthiness.  Call  it  fear, 
superstition,  folly,  or  what  not ;  there  it  is,  sin,  and 
a  sense  of  sin.  You  can  see  it  in  his  eye.  It  blush- 
es over  his  face.  He  cannot  rid  himself  of  it.  Do 
you  say  it  is  education  ?     But  that  is  only  putting 


10      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

the  question  further  back.  How  did  education  get 
it  ?  You  say  it  is  a  nursery  idea.  But  how  did  the 
nursery  create  in  successive  generations  from  the 
first  this  sentiment  of  moral  ill-desert  ?  That  would 
be  a  greater  miracle  than  raising  Lazarus,  or  healing 
the  blind  man.  This  sense  of  sin  is  embodied  in  all 
law,  all  art  and  literature ;  and  it  is  in  every  faith 
and  form  of  religion,  from  the  lowest  stages  of 
idolatry  up  to  the  last  work  on  Christian  morals 
and  piety. 

Now  it  is  the  sublime  and  crowning  office  of  Jesus 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  men  from  sin,  and  from  sinning. 
And  the  parental  love  and  mercy  of  God,  and  his 
own  life  and  death,  and  its  mighty  instrument,  the 
Cross,  are  the  means  he  employs  to  accomplish  this 
end.  Out  of  Christianity  how  feeble  are  the  senti- 
ments of  forgiveness,  reconciliation  to  God,  sub- 
mission, patience,  repentance,  reformation  ?  They 
glimmer  here  and  there,  in  a  few  eminent  and  pure- 
minded  heathen,  like  a  glowworm  in  the  dark.  But 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  is  such  that  it  has  made 
these  holy  and  heavenly  feelings  and  resolves,^  by 
which  man  is  delivered  from  moral  evil  and  its  tor- 
menting remorse  in  his  soul,  burning  and  shining 
lights  to  multitudes  of  men.  This  faith  speaks  to 
the  criminals,  to  the  sot,  to  the  leprous-spotted  proffi- 
gate,  "  Go,  wash  and  be  clean,"  and  mighty  revolu- 
tions follow  it.  The  cannibals  of  the  South  Sea  Isl- 
ands are  now  found  sitting,  clothed  and  in  their  right 
mind,  worshipping  God,  and   loving   one   another. 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  11 

Father  Mathew  speaks  this  word  of  redemption,  and 
millions  arise,  and  fling  from  them  a  polluting  habit. 
Elizabeth  Fry  utters  it  in  Newgate  prison,  and  poor 
wretches,  whose  souls  seemed  dead  and  buried  even 
before  their  bodies,  come  to  life  at  the  glad  sound, 
and  whisper,  "  Is  there  hope  even  for  us  ?  "  Miss 
Dix  reads  it  to  the  insane,  talks  of  it  in  dungeon  walls, 
and  the  very  walls  —  how  much  more  human  hearts 
which  are  not  stone !  —  seem  to  grow  gentle  and 
soft  at  the  melodious  words,  "  Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiv- 
en thee  "  ;  "  Daughter,  be  of  good  cheer."  Mr.  Pease 
talks  of  this  truth  in  the  dens  of  the  Five  Points  in 
New  York,  and  our  Ministers  at  Large  proclaim  it  in 
the  wretched  alleys  and  hovels  of  Boston  and  Liver- 
pool ;  and  the  blind  see,  the  deaf  hear,  the  lame  walk, 
the  sick  are  healed,  and  the  morally  dead  are  raised. 
Magical  is  this  spiritual  power  and  divinity  of  thp 
religion  of  Jesus  in  redeeming  man  from  sin,  and 
reconciling  him  to  God. 

Christianity  is  divine,  for  it  spreads  over  the  world 
a  sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  and  it  drives  sin 
from  the  heart,  and  bleaches  it  out  of  the  character 
and  life. 

But  we  advance  a  step.  Many  concede  all  this, 
and  yet  say,  we  see  no  proofs  of  any  thing  more  than 
a  natural  agency,  reason  developed,  man  progressing, 
the  world  growing  up  to  this  point  through  six  thou- 
sand years.  Then  we  adduce,  besides  this  internal 
and  moral  evidence  of  the  power  and  divinity  of  the 
Gospel,  its  special  character  as  a  sudden  moral  phe- 


12     THE   DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

nomenon  in  history,  springing  out  of  inadequate 
causes  if  we  call  it  natural,  but  easily  explained  if 
we  admit  the  record;  in  a  word,  its  miraculous 
character. 

Now,  properly  understood,  miracles,  what  we  call 
such,  seem  possible,  probable,  and  I  will  say  even 
inevitable.  Certainly  no  one  would  limit  the  power 
of  God,  and  say  he  could  not  work  them.  For  when 
we  have  looked  at  the  whole  scale  of  the  universe, 
does  it  not  seem  likely  that  they  would  occur  ?  For 
what  is  a  miracle  ?  It  is  a  wonder,  as  its  derivation 
signifies,  —  a  wonder  more  than  commonly  wonder- 
ful. Is  it  any  violation  of  the  laws  of  God  ?  Not 
of  the  highest  and  most  enduring  of  his  laws,  —  cer- 
tainly not;  for  God  does  not  contradict  himself, — 
but  only  of  our  acquaintance  with  his  laws  here,  our 
human  experience.  Let  me  illustrate  this  by  the 
creation  of  man. 

No  one  yet  has  been  bold  enough  to  say  that  he 
believed  our  race  is  eternal  on  the  earth.  No  human 
bones  are  found  mingling  in  the  mighty  cemetery  of 
departed  generations  of  sentient  creatures  on  our 
hills;  no  skull  or  vertebrae  of  man  by  the  side  of 
mammoth  and  mastodon.  At  a  certain  point  of 
time,  then,  man  was  created.  To  a  watcher  in  the 
heavens,  —  to  those  sons  of  God  who  shouted  for  joy 
when  the  new  earth  wheeled  into  the  march  of  worlds 
and  constellations,  if  any  were  looking  on,  —  that  cre- 
ation of  the  first  pair  was  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses a  miracle  worked  on  earth.     Something  was 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  13 

done  that  was  never  done  before.  Something  took 
place  that  did  not  violate,  indeed,  the  greater  law  of 
the  whole  universe,  —  for  creating  intelligent  beings, 
we  may  suppose,  is  such  a  law,  —  but  it  was  an  ex- 
ception to  the  ordinary  course  of  things  on  this 
globe. 

They,  therefore,  who  object  to  the  moral  miracle 
of  Christ,  a  new  and  higher  type  of  spiritual  being, 
have  got  to  account  for  the  physical  miracle  of  the 
creation  at  first,  unless  they  believe  man  to  have 
been  an  eternal  inhabitant  of  this  globe.  For  the 
great  miracle,  and  inclusive  of  all  other  miracles,  is 
Christ  himself,  so  pure  and  perfect  a  being,  springing 
at  once  to  light  out  of  the  darkness  of  Jewish  life, 
with  all  its  bigotry  and  corruption ;  so  humble,  born 
in  a  manger ;  having  never  learned  letters,  only  thirty 
years  old,  and  yet  distancing  all  teachers  before  or 
since  in  wisdom,  all  lives  in  spotless  excellence  and 
benevolence,  and  leaving  an  influence  behind,  —  a 
Gospel,  a  Church,  a  kingdom,  which,  despite  the 
ignpminy  of  his  death,  and  the  successive  attempts 
of  Jewish,  Pagan,  and  Mahometan  powers  to  crush 
it,  has  gone  on  conquering  and  to  conquer,  until  it 
has  wellnigh  filled  the  world.  That  such  a  being, 
himself  a  miracle,  should  work  miracles,  seems  nat- 
ural. Hence  his  words  were  miraculous,  his  deeds 
miraculous,  his  effect  on  the  world  miraculous  ;  thus 
being  an  exception  to  the  ordinary  range  of  human 
experience,  but  not  a  violation,  we  may  suppose,  of 
the  laws   of  all  time  and  all  being.     For  the  love 


14      THE    DIVINITY,  SUFFICIENCY,  AND    PERPETUITY 

which  originally  introduced  one  new  system  by  the 
creation  of  man,  now  opened  another  by  the  creation 
of  the  Saviour  of  man.  As  it  required  ages  upon 
ages  for  the  earth  to  become  prepared  for  the  habita- 
tion of  man,  so,  after  he  was  introduced,  society  for 
many  thousands  of  years  was  undergoing  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  advent  of  the  new  moral  type  of  being 
in  Jesus.  It  is  in  accordance  with  this  view  that 
Paul  says :  "  The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a  liv- 
ing soul;  the  last  Adam  was  made  a  quickening 
spirit." 

One  word  as  to  the  use  which  this  miraculous  in- 
terpretation has  upon  man.  The  miracles  of  the 
New  Testament  are  not  so  much  proofs  of  the  spe- 
cial, divine  origin  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  as  helps 
to  awaken  mankind  to  see  and  feel  those  proofs,  and 
the  truths  which  lie  behind  them.  Here  are  souls 
sunk  in  stupor  and  lethargy,  but  the  miracle-worker 
comes  along,  and  cures  the  sick,  or  raises  the  dead. 
According  to  the  record,  —  and  it  has  every  external 
and  internal  mark  of  veracity,  -^  crowds  did  follow 
Him  of  Nazareth,  when  they  saw  the  mighty  works 
he  did,  and  even  the  half-converted  Nicodemus  got  so 
far  as  to  say,  "  Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher 
come  from  God ;  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles 
that  thou  doest,  except  God  be  with  him."  The 
office  of  the  miracle  is,  as  its  name  implies,  to  appeal 
to  wonder,  to  arrest  attention,  to  startle  the  dull  and 
indifferent,  to  flow  visibly  before  them  as  a  stream  of 
divine  power,  to  show  them,  as  by  a  lightning-flash, 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  15 

the  latent  God  in  what  is  around  them,  and  reveal 
him  to  their  wondering  and  adoring  hearts. 

What  are  miracles,  then,  at  man's  point  of  view, 
may  be  laws  at  the  Divine  point  of  view. 

Because  God  loves  man  more  than  father  and 
mother  their  child,  these  special  interpositions  seem 
entirely  possible,  probable,  rational,  and  necessary. 
They  are  the  direct  look,  the  felt  touch,  the  pressure 
of  the  hand  of  the  Mighty  Parent  of  all.  As  the 
mother,  engaged  about  her  household  tasks,  plays 
and  talks  with  her  child,  but  once  in  a  while  she 
fixes  her  loving  eyes  full  upon  the  eyes  of  her  be- 
loved, presses  him  more  fondly  to  her  bosom,  and 
speaks  a  kinder  word,  so  miracles  break  the  silence  of 
nature  with  articulate  speech,  articulate  love.  They 
are  emphatically  the  Word  of  God.  They  are  what 
the  creation  has  been  groaning  and  travailing  to 
utter  from  the  first  by  all  its  mute  signs  and  gifts,  but 
which  at  last  burst  into  angelic  anthems,  "  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will 
toward  men." 

Let  it  be  further  remarked,  that  Jesus  claimed  to 
be  a  special  divine  messenger,  different  from  all  who 
had  gone  before  him.  He  calls  himself  the  light  of 
the  world,  the  bread  of  life,  the  Son  of  God,  the 
sanctified  and  sent,  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life, 
the  Saviour.  Voices  from  above  claimed  this  supe- 
riority for  him  at  his  birth,  his  baptism,  in  his  teach- 
ing, and  in  his  miracles.  He  died  a  wonderful  death, 
was  buried,  rose  again,  and  ascended  on  high.     He 


16     THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,  AND    PERPETUITY 

left  behind  a  miraculous  effect.  For  some  reason, 
he  has  had  a  more  wide-spread  and  a  deeper  influ- 
ence on  the  history  of  the  world  than  any  other  be- 
ing. Since  he  lived,  the  world  has  taken  its  date 
from  him.  His  resurrection  is  the  certificate  to  all 
men  that  they  also  shall  rise,  and  be  immortal. 
What  cause  is  sufficient  to  account  for  these  phenom- 
ena of  Christianity,  and  for  its  increasing  vitality  in 
the  most  advanced  and  cultivated  nations,  except  we 
admit  the  divine,  special,  and  miraculous  character 
of  its  Founder? 

"We  fall  necessarily  upon  one  of  three  supposi- 
tions. He  was  true,  or  he  was  himself  deceived,  or 
he  deceived  others.  One  of  these  three  we  must 
adopt,  in  whole  or  in  part. 

If  we  believe  he  was  what  he  claimed  to  be,  all  is 
reasonable  and  probable.  We  then  have  a  great 
cause,  sufficient  for  the  great  effect  to  be  accounted 
for  and  explained.  This  is  philosophical,  as  well  as 
evangelical. 

But  if  we  reject  the  idea  of  his  perfect  truth,  and 
suppose  that  he  presumed  in  aught  upon  our  credu- 
lity and  ignorance,  then  we  find  it  wholly  incredible 
that  so  much  goodness,  such  transparent  truth,  such 
crystalline  purity,  so  much  love  to  God  and  man, 
should  belong  to  the  same  character  with  so  much 
craft  and  conceit.  The  immediate  neighborhood  and 
contact  of  two  such  characters,  so  utterly  unlike  and 
opposite,  would  be  harder  to  believe  than  all  the  mir- 
acles, twice  told,  of  the  -New  Testament. 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  17 

But  if  Jesus  was  neither  true  nor  a  deceiver,  then 
we  fall  upon  the  sole  remaining  supposition,  that  he 
was  an  enthusiast,  a  fanatic.  But  what  a  miracle  is 
here  ?  To  believe  that  such  a  life,  such  labors  and 
instructions,  such  a  death,  such  lasting  effects  on 
mankind,  such  faith  and  persuasion  of  his  truth  in 
many  of  the  ripest  and  richest  spirits  that  ever  inhab- 
ited mortal  clay,  could  grow  out  of  one  heated  brain, 
without  entire  reason,  truth,  and  reality  to  back  the 
claim,  is  to  reverse  all  the  laws  of  probability,  and 
call  this  a  chance  world,  where  effects  take  place 
without  causes,  and  error  and  folly  have  all  the  power 
of  truth.  A  corrupt  tree  does  not  thus  bear  good 
fruit.  Mahomet  succeeds  for  a  time,  because  he 
used  the  sword.  The  Mormon  chief  succeeds  a  lit- 
tle, because  he  appeals  to  worldly  comfort  and  sen- 
sual pleasure.  The  Christian  empire  had  no  sword, 
no  sceptre,  but  a  cross,  tolerated  none  of  the  passions 
and  appetites  in  self-indulgence,  and  was  aided  by 
no  worldly  power,  but  resisted  by  all ;  yet  it  is  what 
we  see  it  to-day  in  all  the  earth.  If  this  counsel 
or  this  work  had  been  of  men,  it  would  come  to 
naught.  Every  reason  to  account  for  the  spread, 
success,  hopes,  and  prospects  of  Christianity  centres 
finally  in  its  character  as  a  special,  divine  revelation 
from  God  to  man  by  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  the  Au- 
thor and  Finisher  of  our  faith  were  seriously  in  error 
in  a  single  point,  bearing  upon  moral  and  spiritual 
subjects,  respecting  which  he  particularlycam  e  to 
make  the  revelation,  would  it  not  shake  the  entire 
2* 


18      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,  AND    PERPETUITY 

fabric  of  the  Gospel,  and  bring  a  dark  cloud  of  doubt 
over  the  whole  ? 

2.  The  Sufficiency  of  the  Christian  Religion  is 
but  a  corollary  from  its  Divinity ;  for,  if  divine,  it 
must  be  adequate  to  its  purpose.  So  extensive  and 
costly  an  apparatus  cannot  have  been  provided  only 
to  prove  abortive.  Fire,  and  light,  and  sun,  and 
moon  do  not  fail ;  why  should  truth,  and  love,  and 
right  ?  Divine  in  its  origin,  in  the  love  and  mercy  of 
God,  divine  in  the  spirit,  mission,  character,  works, 
and  resurrection  of  its  Founder,  divine  in  its  works 
and  ways  among  men,  it  follows  as  an  inevitable  re- 
sult that  it  is  all-sufficient. 

Some  have  objected,  that  they  could  not  receive 
the  Gospel  as  a  sufficient  guaranty  to  their  salvation, 
unless  its  Author  and  Finisher  were  God  himself. 
But  it  is  virtually  God  himself.  For  the  rule  holds 
equally  good  in  theology  as  in  law,  that  what  one 
does  by  another  he  does  himself.  If  Jesus  is  com- 
missioned by  God,  it  is  the  same  as  if  the  Infinite 
One  appeared  in  person.  Do  we  rashly  say  we  can- 
not trust  in  any  being  short  of  God  for  our  safety  in 
such  an  infinite  matter  as  eternal  life  ?  We*do  trust 
in  God  when  we  trust  in  Christ.  When  the  Chinese 
merchant  at  Canton  has  transactions  with  the  United 
States,  he  must  negotiate  with  our  commissioner  there. 
For  the  commissioner  is  the  United  States,  carried 
abroad,  all  that  can  be  carried,  to  China.  So  Jesus 
is  God  revealed  into  this  world,  so  much  of  the  In- 
finite First  Fair  and  First  Good  as  can  dawn  on 
these  dim  eyes  of  dust. 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  19 

But  it  is  further  objected  to  the  sufficiency  of  the 
Christian  Revelation,  that  it  does  not  show  the  full 
glory  of  God.  The  Hebrew  Revelation  did  not,  we 
concede,  because  men  were  not  able  to  bear  the  full 
blaze  of  light  at  once.  Moses  yielded  a  point  here 
and  there  in  his  legislation,  we  are  told,  on  account 
of  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts.  Even  Jesus  taught 
his  disciples  with  adaptation,  —  gave  them  the  truth 
as  they  were  able  to  bear  it.  All  believe  in  the 
progress  of  the  material  creation  ;  why  is  it  any 
more  irrational  to  believe  that  there  are  progress,  de- 
grees in  Revelation,  if  both  are  from  God  ?  Nature 
culminates  in  man  ;  why  should  not  Revelation  cul- 
minate in  Christ? 

In  both  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures,  hu- 
man words,  figures,  relations,  and  affections  are  used, 
and  must  be  used,  to  set  forth  the  infinite  perfection 
of  God.  And  no  man,  be  he  saint  or  philosopher, 
can  use  any  other,  though  it  be  six  thousand  years 
after  the  creation,  and  two  thousand  after  Jesus. 
For  the  moment  you  say  father,  mother,  or  employ 
the  terms  justice,  love,  mercy,  you  begin  to  limit  the 
Illimitable,  and  to  take  terms  from  home,  the  court, 
the  congress,  and  carry  them  up  and  attach  them  to 
the  Absolute  and  Inconceivable  and  Inexpressible 
God.  If  you  object  to  the  imperfect  and  limiting 
terms  of  the  prophet,  he  can  equally  object  to  yours. 
For  you  cannot  jump  the  abyss  any  more  than  he, 
and  pluck  the  spoils  of  absolute  Infinity  and  Eter- 
nity.    In  truth,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  most 


20      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

eminent  philosophers  of  the  nineteenth  century  can 
surpass,  or  even  equal,  the  sublime  descriptions  of 
God  in  David  and  Isaiah,  to  say  nothing  of  Paul  and 
John. 

The  intellect  is  indeed  an  inferior  faculty,  in  the 
knowing  of  God,  to  the  heart.  For  he  is  not  known, 
but  felt.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they 
shall  see  God."  "  The  world  by  wisdom  knew  not 
God."  Wisdom  became  even  an  obstruction  instead 
of  a  help.  "  Spiritual  things  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned." "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that 
fear  him."  Jesus  said,  "  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will 
keep  my  words,  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we 
will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him." 
The  grand  generalization,  God  is  love,  was  not  made 
by  the  eagle  intellect  of  Paul,  but  by  the  tender- 
hearted John.  An  eagle  was  in  fact  John's  emblem 
in  the  early  Church  symbolism,  as  if  to  indicate  that 
he  soared  by  that  very  love  into  the  heaven  of  heav- 
ens, into  the  heart  of  the  Unknown  and  Eternal, 
and  brought  back  the  glad  message,  God  is  Love. 
The  only  idea  of  the  Infinite  Perfection  is  a  senti- 
ment. It  cannot  be  grasped  and  weighed  by  the 
thought,  but  it  can  be  felt  by  the  heart.  Words 
break  down  under  the  burden.  Though  they  are 
piled  up  in  great  masses,  and  intensified  and  illumi- 
nated with  rhetorical  fire,  they  can  only  suggest  that 
Uncreated  Glory.  One  rapt  emotion  of  a  mother's 
heart,  bending  over  her  babe,  one  kindling  spark  of 
love  in  John,  reclining  in  the  bosom  of  his  Master, 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  21 

is  a  deeper  glance  into  the  fathomless  mystery  of  the 
Godhead,  than  all  that  divines  and  philosophers 
could  achieve  by  the  mere  intellectual  study  of  a 
lifetime.  Jesus  reveals  the  infinite  perfection  of  the 
Deity,  not  by  displays  of  power  or  wisdom  alone, 
though  in  these  there  was  no  defect,  but  in  love,  in 
doing  good,  in  healing,  blessing,  forgiving  his  ene- 
mies, dying  on  the  cross.  No  wonder  the  world  has 
called  this  being  God ;  for  there  shone  the  brightness 
of  the  Everlasting  Glory. 

It  has  been  objected  to  Jesus  having  the  true  idea 
of  the  infinite  perfection  of  God,  that  he  admitted 
the  existence  of  three  things  conflicting  with  that 
perfection,  —  a  Devil,  absolute  evil,  and  an  eternal 
hell.  I  do  not  believe  he  did.  I  am  one  of  those 
who  are  said  to  "  explain  the  Devil  out  of  the  Bible," 
and  I  prefer  it  to  explaining  the  Bible  oft'  the  basis 
of  its  divine  and  miraculous  character.  For  if  I 
found  any  thing  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  which  I 
could  not  accept,  I  should  be  more  inclined  to  think 
that  I  erred  in  the  interpretation  of  his  words,  than 
that  he  erred  in  understanding  God  and  his  universe. 

But  Jesus  admits  there  is  evil ;  so  do  we ;  so  do 
all  men;  —  evil,  that  black  mote  swimming  in  the 
golden  sunlight  of  all  this  glorious  universe.  We 
live  nineteen  centuries  after  Christ,  yet  evil,  that  sad, 
fearful,  ominous,  inscrutable  thing,  still  exists.  I  feel 
it,  see  it ;  so  do  you ;  so  do  all.  By  no  ingenuity 
can  we  make  it  a  synonym  e  for  good ;  evil  it  will  still 
remain,  in  gloomy,  awful  form,  as  if  a  bright  angel 


22      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

had  fallen  from  the  sky,  and  lay  prostrate  and  broken 
on  the  earth.  Some  still  put  a  d  before  it,  and  call 
evil  devil,  as  they  did  in  olden  time  of  vivid  figures 
of  speech,  and  sometimes  almost  violent  personifica- 
tions. So  Wisdom  was  a  person  in  Proverbs,  and 
Charity,  Sin,  Death,  the  Law,  in  Paul.  If  we  inter- 
pret language,  we  must  do  it  according  to  the  rules 
of  language.  The  art  of  criticism  may  be  despised, 
but  it  is  as  essential  in  its  place  as  the  kindred  art  of 
computation  in  numbers,  for  we  cannot  make  the 
mental,  any  more  than  the  numerical  figures,  yield 
the  right  result,  without  the  right  rules. 

Evil,  both  natural  and  moral,  seems  to  arise  from 
the  very  necessity  of  a  finite  and  created  being. 
Jesus  barely  stated  the  fact.  He  did  not  explain  it, 
and  he  did  not  speculate  about  it.  Perhaps  its 
explanation  is  not*  a  subject  of  human  knowledge. 
There  may  be  some  thoughts  the  human  mind  can- 
not think  in  the  present  state.  We  cannot  tell 
whence  evil  is,  how  it  is,  or  what  it  is.  But  it  is,  — 
stern,  inexorable  fact.  Evil,  suffering,  sin,  dungeons 
in  Austria,  gibbets  in  Rome,  slavery  in  the  South, 
bloody  stripes  on  the  flesh,  darker  spots  on  the  soul ! 
O  the  untold  suffering,  agony,  despair,  suicide,  of 
mortals  I  If  it  is  their  fault,  why  is  it  their  fault  ?  is 
the  significant  inquiry.  Why  should  such  a  fatal 
margin  have  been  granted  to  their  liberty  ?  If  it  still 
exists,  this  Sphinx-riddle  of  the  universe,  at  the  end 
of  six  thousand  years,  why  may  it  not  at  the  end  of 
sixty  thousand  or  of  sixty  million  years  ?     If  it  ex- 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  23 

ists  nowat  the  end  of  an  eternity  past,  so  to  speak, 
who  shall  presume  to  say  but  that  it  may  exist 
somewhere,  in  some  world,  in  some  being,  at  the  end, 
so  to  say,  of  an  eternity  future  ?  Once  having  con- 
ceded evil,  who  shall  prescribe  limits,  and  say,  "  Thus 
far,  and  no  farther  ?  "  For  if  it  is  consistent  with  the 
perfections  of  a  Being,  infinitely  powerful,  and  able 
to  prevent  it,  infinitely  wuse,  and  knowing  how  to 
prevent  it,  and  infinitely  good,  and  disposed  to  pre- 
vent it,  to  allow  evil  in  this  world  for  a  limited  time, 
in  order  to  accomplish  wise  and  benevolent  purposes, 
as  we  believe  with  the  strength  of  adamant,  who 
shall  undertake  to  say  it  may  not  also  be  consistent 
in  other  worlds  and  other  states  of  being?  The 
truth  is,  we  know  nothing  about  it,  and  cannot  even 
speculate  far.  Jesus  came  to  forewarn  us,  and  fore- 
arm us  for  the  eternal  life,  not  to  relieve  our  curiosity 
about  a  multitude  of  questions  and  problems,  for 
which  we  are  not  yet  probably  far  enough  advanced. 
Little  children  must  begin  with  their  a  h  c,  not  La 
Place's  Mecanique  Celeste,  or  Kant's  Pure  Reason^ 
The  teacher  of  heaven  knows  the  law  of  adaptation 
as  well  as  the  teacher  of  the  village  school.  Jesus 
said  the  practical  word,  and  let  the  speculative  word 
go.  He  said,  offences  must  needs  come,  —  such  is 
the  constitution  of  things.  He  did  not  attempt  to 
explain  what  we  could  not  understand,  either  origi- 
nal or  total,  natural  or  acquired  depravity,  but  he 
pealed  into  the  startled  ear  of  conscience  the  eternal 
law,  and  love  as  well  as  law,  Woe  to  that  man  by 


24      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

whom  the  offence  cometh!  When  Peter  would 
suggest  a  temptation,  he  exclaimed,  Get  thee  behind 
me,  Satan ;  showing  who  and  what  he  knew  Satan 
to  be,  —  evil,  sin.  But  he  had  no  time  to  correct  a 
host  of  superstitions,  any  more  than  of  astronomical 
mistakes.  He  taught  the  mighty  and  luminous 
truths,  that  would  at  last  extirpate  all  material 
errors. 

But  though  he  did  not  solve  intellectually  the 
question  of  evil,  either  here  or  hereafter,  —  as  who 
but  the  Infinite  Mind  can  ?  —  he  did  solve  it 
spiritually.  He  gave  the  clew  to  the  heart  out  of 
this  labyrinth.  To  the  believing,  praying,  loving, 
and  working  soul  this  dark  shade  grows  paler  and 
paler,  lighter  and  lighter,  until  it  is  swallowed  up  in 
the  blaze  of  glory.  Evil  is  thus  found  to  be,  as  has 
been  said,  good  in  the  making.  How  bravely  did 
the  Conqueror  of  Sin  and  Death,  yet  how  tenderly, 
pass  onward  and  upward  to  the  everlasting  day, 
through  the  hall  of  Pilate,  up  to  the  cross  of  Cal- 
vary, through  the  tomb,  to  Olivet,  until  a  cloud 
received  him  out  of  their  sight !  Can  Philosophy 
give  us  any  explanation  of  evil,  equal  to  this  faith 
and  deliverance  of  the  Son  of  God?  The  great 
heart  of  humanity  for  twenty  centuries  answers.  No. 

Again,  we  place  man  no  more  in  the  darl^  on  one 
side,  and  God  in  the  light  on  the  other,  on  the  theory 
of  revelation,  than  others  do  on  the  theory  of  nature 
and  natural  development.  For  on  the  natural  and 
philosophical  theory,  man  began  low,  has  crept  up 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  25 

very  slowly,  and  has  not  risen  very  high  at  last, 
being  on  the  dark  side,  and  being  visited  by  a  little 
light  glimmering  through  the  semi-opaque  wall. 
This  deprivation  of  light,  and  its  slow  progressive 
shining  through,  is  as  much  to  be  objected  to,  be- 
cause it  would  seem  to  conflict  with  the  perfect  be- 
nevolence of  the  Deity,  as  to  assume  the  theory  that, 
at  certain  definite  periods,  distinct  rays  of  Revela- 
tion were  allowed  to  perforate  the  wall  of  partition, 
and  fall  on  the  pathway  of  man.  Butler  long  ago 
settled  this  class  of  difficulties  by  his  Analogy,  and 
the  argument  cannot  be  shaken.  If  there  are  diffi- 
culties under  the  system  of  Revelation,  they  are  not 
removed,  but  aggravated,  by  returning  to  philosophy 
and  nature.  He  who  leaves  the  sun,  to  get  heat 
and  light  from  his  own  lamp,  will  find  not  less,  but 
more,  darkness  than  before. 

If  we  consider,  then,  either  the  scale,  or  the  filling 
up  of  the  scale,  the  quantity  or  the  quality  of  this 
wisdom  from  above,  we  find  it  sufficient  and  fitting. 
That  the  man-made  creeds  of  the  churches,  or  the  rit- 
uals of  the  sects,  into  which  Christendom  is  splintered 
up,  are  able  to  meet  the  progressive  spirit  of  society, 
I  doubt ;  but  the  fountain  is  purer  than  the  streams, 
and  he  who  drinks  there  will  never  thirst  more. 

The  great  names  of  history  on  the  side  of  Revela- 
tion, who  found  it  sufficient  in  the  toils  of  state,  the 
researches  of  science,  the  flights  of  poetry  and  fiction, 
and  the  depths  of  philosophy,  are  the  names  of  tran- 
scendent power,  whose  very  mention  sends  a  thrill 


26      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

through  one  as  at  the  presence  of  superior  intelli- 
gences. Their  testimony  is  no  more,  to  be  sure,  than 
that  of  Cowper's  Poor  Cottager,  or  the  Shepherd  of 
Salisbury  Plain  ;  for  the  soul  is  soul,  and  man  is 
man,  all  over  the  world ;  but  the  monumental  names 
of  Leibnitz,  Newton,  Milton,  Bacon,  Burke,  Cuvier, 
Washington,  bear  testimony  to  faith  in  the  Son  of 
God,  as  a  sufficient  Saviour. 

For  the  sublime  process  is  ever  going  on  from  age 
to  age.  The  Bible  is  an  unexhausted  book.  The 
spiritual  aid  from  heaven  is  ever  flowing.  Jesus  is 
personally  gone,  but  spiritually  he  has  diffused  him- 
self everywhere.  His  words  remain,  the  seeds  of 
truth.  The  Holy  Spirit  rains  sweet  and  purifying 
showers  on  men's  souls.  The  channels  are  open, 
and  the  ways  direct.  The  battery  is  ever  full  charged, 
the  jar  is  ready,  the  conductors  are  in  their  places. 
The  electric  element  is  in  constant  transmission.  In 
the  Bible  God  speaks  to  man,  and  in  prayer  man 
speaks  to  God.  The  wants  of  earth  go  up  to  plead 
before  God,  and  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  All  in  All 
is  ever  coming  down  to  satisfy  these  wants.  The 
ladder  is  erected,  and  angels  are  seen  ascending  and 
descending. 

8.  From  either  proposition,  then,  of  the  Divinity  or 
of  the  Sufficiency  of  the  Religion  of  Jesus,  we  might 
infer  its  Perpetuity.  For  God  is  economical.  The 
nature  of  Revelation  is  progressive,  as  it  respects  its 
reception  and  application  by  man,  but  it  is  com- 
pleted in  its  perfect  life,  its  all-comprehending  love 


OP    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  27 

and  mercy,  and  its  sufficient  truth.  Can  the  human 
eye  bear  a  brighter  light  than  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness? Can  truth  be  truer,  pity  tenderer,  or  love 
deeper  and  warmer  ?  The  Hebrew  dispensation  looks 
forward  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  Christian,  and  the 
Christian  looks  back  to  its  own  germs  and  beginnings 
in  the  Hebrew.  But  the  Christian  predicts  only 
its  own  expansion,  not  any  second  Messiah.  Illus- 
trious sons,  whom  it  has  nourished,  have  developed 
and  applied  it,  —  Augustine,  Luther,  Howard,  Cal- 
vin, Wesley,  Channing ;  but  what  single  new  truth, 
new  spiritual  principle,  new  sentiment,  now  vivifies 
society,  or  looms  up  in  the  future,  but  what  is  coiled 
up  as  a  spring,  or  lies  as  an  element,  in  the  New 
Testament  itself,  ready  for  use  ? 

The  Millerites,  who  look  for  a  second  advent  of 
the  former  Christ,  and  his  reign  on  earth,  and  the 
Rationalists,  who  anticipate  more  perfect  revela- 
tions, belong  to  the  same  class  in  their  dissatisfaction 
with  Christianity  as  it  is.  But  what  office  could  the 
new  messenger  fill,  that  is  not  already  occupied  by 
our  Lord  ?  Is  there  any  unoccupied  field  of  spiritual 
truth,  social  sentiment,  or  philanthropic  reform  ?  Je- 
sus seems  to  have  laid  down  laws  that  cover  all 
cases,  given  a  life  that  has  no  flaw,  and  charged  a 
magazine  of  spiritual  forces  sufficient  to  convert  the 
world.  Paul  could  add  nothing,  John  could  add 
nothing.  Has  any  one  since,  can  any  one,  add  any- 
thing, after  the  Son  of  God  has  spoken  ?  Men  are 
inveigled  into  the  notion,  that,  because  there  are  new 


28      THE    DIVINITY,    SUFFICIENCY,    AND    PERPETUITY 

machines  and  telegraphs,  there  must  be  a  new  Gos- 
pel. But  what  can  be  added  to  the  Perfect  ?  I  can 
conceive  of  no  brighter  representative  of  the  God- 
head than  Jesus.  He  shines  with  all  the  glory  we 
can  bear.  We  mayreverently  say,  he  lived  on  earth 
as  God  would  live  if  God  were  man,  in  love,  pa- 
tience, fortitude,  goodness,  holy  joy,  and  hope. 

Jesus  promised,  indeed,  that  his  disciples  should  do 
greater  works  than  his.  In  one  sense  they  have,  and 
will.  In  their  lifetime  they  may  exceed  in  quantity 
what  he  said  and  did  in  his  lifetime.  Paul,  for  ex- 
ample, travelled  farther,  wrote  books,  as  Jesus  did 
not,  left  behind  more  words,  and  probably  while 
living  made  more  individual  converts.  But  what  a 
distance  between  the  Master  and  his  disciple  !  The 
diamond  is  carbon,  and  coal  is  carbon,  but  what  a 
remove  is  the  jewel  from  the  stone !  When  the  sun 
is  up,  the  stars  are  not  seen.  Jesus  was  not  exclu- 
sive, exacting  in  spirit,  monopolized  no  virtue,  car- 
ried none  to  excess,  has  associated  his  name  not  with 
one,  but  all  graces;  bade  his  disciples  aim  not  at 
him,  but  at  the  Infinite  Perfection,  —  Be  ye  perfect, 
as  God  is  perfect ;  yet  who  in  all  the  millions  of  the 
spirits  of  the  earth  has  ever  approached  the  wisdom, 
the  love,  the  holiness,  the  benevolence,  the  self-sacri- 
fice, of  the  Lord  ?  His  lessons  are  as  living  to-day 
as  when  spoken  on  the  hills  of  Galilee  and  Judea. 
There  is  no  smell  of  age  on  them.  None  has  grown 
obsolete  ;  none  reads  hard  ;  none  jars,  when  science 
is  spoken  of,  when  music  is  played,  when  senates 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  29 

deliberate,  when  the  world  holds  its  conventions,  or 
builds  its  crystal  palaces,  or  when  art  ransacks  heav- 
en and  earth  to  seek  new  elements,  and  apply  them 
to  its  machines,  and  change  the  habits  and  occupa- 
tions of  mankind.  This  sweet  and  holy  wisdom 
glides  in  like  light,  wherever  we  will  let  it  go,  and 
it  gilds  and  beautifies  all  it  touches.  The  unwhole- 
some birds  of  night  fly  into  the  dark  places  at  its 
shining.  All  our  wrong  desires  shrink  away  from 
the  clear  and  loving  eye  of  the  Son  of  God. 

What  is  natural  we  cannot  now  precisely  say. 
For  Christianity  has  slidden  into  nature,  has  entered 
the  stars,  and  trees,  and  streams,  and  invested  them 
with  its  spirit.  The  human  consciousness  is  now  a 
Christian  consciousness.  All  in  the  range  of  civil- 
ized nations  have  had  their  being  more  or  less  soaked 
and  saturated  with  the  sentiments  of  Jesus.  They 
drank  them  in  early,  and  they  drink  them  still.  We 
owe  more  to  Christianity  than  we  are  aware  of,  for 
this  thing  has  not  been  done  in  a  corner,  nor  hidden 
under  a  bushel.  We  cannot  denude  our  souls,  and 
say,  this  is  nature,  and  this  is  Christ.  For  he  is  now 
an  element  with  the  rest,  as  the  air,  or  the  water. 
His  star  shines  with  all  the  heavenly  host.  We  are 
born  into  him,  as  we  are  born  into  day  and  night. 
Christianity  was  supernatural  in  its  origin,  like  the 
physical  creation,  and  man  himself;  but  like  them,  it 
is  natural  in  its  continuance  and  operation.  Whither 
do  even  reformers,  radicals,  and  deniers  resort  for 
their  golden  rules,  their  higher  laws,  their  rebukes  of 

3" 


30       THE    DIVINITY,  SUFFICIENCY,  AND    PERPETUITY 

wickedness  and  hypocrisy,  their  hopes  of  brother- 
hood, and  their  beatitudes,  but  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment ?  Has  it  ever  been  tried  and  found  wanting 
in  the  utmost  spiritual  emergency  ? 

Christianity  has  two  great  works  always  on  hand; 
to   save   man,  and  to   save  mankind;  to  re-create 
the  bruised  and  stained   soul   after  a  divine  type, 
and  to  organize  society  on  a  new  basis.     It  would 
take  this  cold  and  heavy  lump  of  humanity,  and 
breathe  into  it  a  living  spirit.     It  would  take  this 
battle-field  of  the  earth,  and  wash  out  its  bloody 
spots  with  the  rains  of  mercy  and  love.     It  would 
take  this  black  and  threatening  cloud  of  slavery,  and 
draw   out  the   thunder-bolts   from  its  bosom,  and 
write   a   rainbow   of   promise   over   its   portentous 
folds.     It  would  advance  association,  the  first  faint 
crystallization  of  the   Christian  kingdom,  into  the 
brotherhood  of  nations.     We  take  a  low  view  of 
the  progress  of  mankind,  when  we  dwell  chiefly  on 
^tools  and  telegraphs.     The  great  human  growth  is 
in  thought,  literature,  morals,   codes,  philosophies. 
The  conquest  of  new  ideas  from  his  spiritual  sphere 
is  the  sign  of  the  moral  coming  of  the  Head  and 
Leader  of  the  human  race  in  his  more  complete 
reign  on  earth.    Missions,  Ministries  at  Large,  Hospi- 
tals,  Schools,  Libraries,  Lectures,  Freedom,   Tem- 
perance, Purity,  Peace,  are  the  heralds  of  his  coro- 
nation. 

When  Jesus,  after  some  of  his  disciples  had  left 
him,  said  to  those  who  remained,   "  Will  ye  also  go 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  31 

away  ?  "  he  who  was  ever  forward,  and  whose  first 
impressions  were  always  better  than  his  sober 
second-thought,  ejaculated  the  glorious  confession 
for  himself  and  all  the  world,  "  Lord,  to  whom 
shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life." 

Far,  far  be  it  from  me  to  condemn  any  man  who 
differs  from  me  in  opinion  or  faith.    To  his  own  Mas- 
ter he  standeth  or  falleth.    Twenty  violations  of  faith 
are  not  so  bad  as  one  breach  of  charity.    Charity  is 
not  only  the  kindest  rule  for  the  heart,  but  the  truest 
rule  for  the  intellect.     Some  who  deny  the  super- 
natural character  of  Christ  are  better  men  morally 
than  some  who  believe  in  it.     There  is  such  a  thing 
as  holding  error,  rank  error,  in  the  spirit  of  truth, 
and  of  holding  truth  in  unrighteousness.     But  when 
I  look  at  the  Author  of  the  Christian  religion,  at 
his  deeds  and  words,  his  life,  death,  resurrection,  and 
ascension,  when  I  see  how  broad  and  unmistakable 
are  the  proofs  of  his  divine  mission,  when  I  wit- 
ness  the   energy  which   his   religion   put  into  the 
breasts  of  a  handful  of  Galilean  fishermen,  and  how 
it  has  ever  gained  and  gained  against  power,  cus- 
tom, fashion,  worship,  interest,  sense,  until   it  has 
won  all  contemporaneous  civilized  empires,  I  can 
assign  no  adequate  philosophical  cause  for  so  essen- 
tial and  enduring  a  change,  but  the  authority  of  a 
divine  messenger.     I  know   good  men  have  lived 
and   died   without   this   regenerating   power.     But 
when   I  consider  how  easily  we  are  tempted,  and 
how  far  we  go  astray,  how  short  is  life,  and  how 


32       THE    DIVINITY,   SUFFICIENCY,  AND    PERPETUITY 

certain  is  its  end,  I  feel  the  want  of  this  faith  in 
God,  in  Christ,  and  in  immortality,  as  the  one  thing 
needful,  the  light  of  life,  the  pearl  of  great  price. 
I  find  the  New  Testament  emphasizing,  with  every 
variety  of  phrase,  the  want  of  this  faith,  and  its  in- 
expressible value.  And  when  I  bow  my  mind,  my 
heart,  my  will,  my  life,  my  whole  being,  before  this 
commanding  authority  of  Jesus,  I  feel  not  humil- 
iated, but  elevated,  glorified  by  the  act. 

In  conclusion,  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Dewey, 
"  I  know  it  is  often  said.  What  great  harm  is  there 
about  this  system  of  Naturalism  ?  There  are  many 
beautiful  things  in  it ;  what  great  harm  is  there  in 
rejecting  the  miracles  ?  The  substance  of  Gospel 
truth  and  love  is  left.  What  need  is  there  of  look- 
ing so  very  seriously  upon  a  man,  though  he  does 
assail  your  faith  in  a  divine  interposition?  I  judge 
no  man's  heart ;  but  I  will  tell  you  the  state  of  my 
own.  Very  seriously  I  must  look  at  this  question, 
at  any  rate.  For  I  feel  deep  in  my  heart  and  whole 
being  the  need  of  such  a  faith.  I  must  confess 
that  the  teaching  of  Nature  is  too  general  to  satisfy 
the  wants  of  my  mind ;  and  that  the  revealings  of 
my  mind,  again,  are  too  doubtful  and  defective  for 
the  needed  reliance.  I  am  ignorant,  I  am  weak,  I 
am  sinful,  I  am  struggling  with  many  difficulties; 
the  conflict  is  hard,  —  it  seems  too  hard  for  me  at 
times ;  and  nature  around  me  moves  on,  mean- 
while, in  calm  uniformity,  as  if  it  did  not  mind  me, 
and  as  if  its  Author  did  not  regard  the  dread  warfare 


OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.  33 

that  is  going  on  within  me.  The  universe  lies 
around  me,  like  a  bright  sea  of  boundless  fluctua- 
tions,—  studded  with  starry  isles  indeed,  but  swept 
by  clouds  of  obscurity;  and  whither  it  is  tending, 
and  where  it  is  bearing  me,  I  know  not.  I  feel  at 
times  as  if  I  were  wrapt  with  an  infinite  envelop- 
ment of  mystery;  and  I  ask,  with  almost  heart- 
breaking desire,  for  some  voice  to  come  forth  from 
the  great  realm  of  silence,  and  speak  to  me.  I  say, 
*  O  that  the  great  Being  who  made  the  universe 
would  for  once  touch,  as  no  hand  but  his  can  touch, 
the  springs  of  this  all-encompassing  order,  and  say 
to  me  in  the  sublime  pause,  —  in  the  cleft  of  these 
dread  mountain-heights  of  the  universe,  —  say  to 
me,  I  love  thee;  I  will  care  for  thee;  I  will  save 
thee ;  I  will  bear  thee  beyond  the  world-barrier,  the 
rent  vail  of  death,  and  the  sealed  tomb,  away,  away, 
to  blessed  regions  on  high,  there  to  live  for  ever! ' 

"  It  has  COME  !  To  my  faith,  that  very  word  has 
come,  in  the  mission  of  Christ.  I  will  not  mock 
conviction  with  arguments  to  prove  the  value  of 
such  an  interposition.  I  will  only  say,  *  Blessed  be 
the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
according  to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us 
again  to  a  lively  hope,  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead ;  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible 
and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away ! ' " 


DISCOURSE    II.- 


THE  MANNEK   OF  EEVELATION. 

GOD,  WHO  AT  SUNDRY  TIMES  AND  IN  DIVERS  MANNERS  SPAKE 
IN  TIME  PAST  UNTO  THE  FATHERS  BY  THE  PROPHETS,  HATH  IN 
THESE   LAST   DAYS   SPOKEN   UNTO  US   BY   HIS   SON.  —  Heb.  i.  1,  2. 

In  discussing  the  Manner  of  Uevelation,  the  fol- 
lowing points  claim  our  notice :  the  Time,  Agents 
and  Examples,  Languages  and  Books,  Miracles  and 
History,  and  Institutions  and  Ordinances,  by  which 
the  gift  of  a  pure  and  regenerating  faith  has  been 
imparted  to  mankind. 

1.  Time.  —  The  text  refers  to  this  feature  of  Reve- 
lation. Communications  were  made  to  the  fathers 
by  the  prophets,  and  in  later  times  to  us  by  the  Son 
of  God.  Centuries  and  ages  were  required  to  com- 
plete the  scheme.  Man  was  to  be  taken  at  a  low 
and  infantile  point,  and  raised  up  to  the  fulness  of 
the  stature  of  a  perfect  manhood ;  from  "  a  living 
soul"  to  "a  quickening  spirit."  The  divine  com- 
passes were  to  trace  one  arc  after  another  of  the  vast 
circle,  and  generations  were  to  come  and  go,  before 
it  was  finished.     By  no  one  sudden  blow  could  the 


THE    MAl^NER    OF    REVELATION.  35 

benevolent  design  of  giving  man  the  true  knowledge 
of  God,  and  his  own  duty  and  destiny,  be  executed. 
The  laws  of  progress,  gradation,  and  periodicity 
must  be  observed  in  regard  to  our  4iigher  nature. 
Man  was  not  to  stride  by  one  enormous  step  from 
the  depth  of  idolatry  to  the  height  of  a  filial  and  in- 
telligent worship,  but  he  must  go  up  step  by  step, 
and  round  by  round,  on  the  ladder  on  which  angels 
ascend  and  descend.  One  age  was  to  witness  one 
attainment,  and  another,  another.  It  was  much  to 
establish  the  unity  of  the  Deity ;  it  was  more  to  de- 
velop the  idea  of  the  Father.  We  see,  therefore,  in 
this  characteristic  of  Revelation,  an  analogy  with 
other  portions  of  the  Divine  workings :  the  growth 
of  the  plant,  "  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear " ;  the  age-long  preparation  of 
the  earth  for  the  abode  of  man,  the  progress  of  the 
arts  and  sciences,  and  the  slow  advancement  of 
government  and  civilization  from  their  rudimental 
to  their  glorified  condition.  The  necessary  element 
of  time  is  allotted  to  the  germination,  expansion, 
and  ripening  of  the  religious  ideas.  Revelation  in 
this  view  is  an  education,  begun  with  one  man, 
prosecuted  with  his  descendants,  from  one  nation  to 
all  nations,  from  a  narrow  province  of  Asia  over  the 
whole  globe. 

There  is  a  grandeur  and  beauty  in  this  succession 
of  periods  in  Revelation,  wholly  inconsistent  with 
the  notion  of  human  invention  and  fraud.  If  one 
man  had  begun  such  a  system,  would  other  men 


36  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

have  been  found  to  carry  it  out  through  long  periods 
of  centuries  and  thousands  of  years?  The  decep- 
tion is  on  too  gigantic  a  scale  for  puny  man  either 
to  conceive  or. execute.  He  may  falsify  a  date,  an 
act,  a  single  reign,  and  corrupt  a  nation  by  his 
misgovernment  or  his  writings,  but  he  cannot  take 
the  sceptre  of  the  ages  in  his  hand,  and  plan  a 
fraud,  which  shall  be  commenced  under  Moses,  pros- 
ecuted by  kings  and  prophets,  and  consummated  by 
Christ  and  his  Apostles,  and  looking  through  a  range 
of  interminable  ages  for  its  entire  fulfilment.  For 
link  is  joined  to  link  in  one  'lependent  and  connected 
chain,  and  he  must  have  been  an  arch-magician, 
scarcely  less  than  omniscient,  who  could  plan  the 
whole,  if  it  were  based  on  error  and  fraud. 

Any.  seeming  exception  to  these  views  arising  from 
the  long  continuance  and  wide  spread  of  Buddhism, 
Mahometanism,  and  other  great  systems  of  error  or 
fanaticism,  is  obviated,  when  we  recall  to  mind,  that 
they  arose  at  once  in  a  single  man,  or  generation, 
and  have  none  of  that  prospective  character  belong- 
ing to  Judaism,  nor  of  that  retrospective  character 
belonging  to  Christianity.  The  length  and  breadth 
of  Revelation,  therefore,  are  securities  of  its  truth,  for 
the  unfolding  of  each  successive  stage  reveals  the 
finger  of  Him  who  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning, 
and  with  whom  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day. 

A  very  practical  inference  from  this  view  of  the 
progress  of  Revelation  is  trust  in  its  essential  re- 
sults.    If  it  have  been  ages  in  a  course  of  prepara- 


THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  37 

tion  and  development,  it  is  natural  and  to  be  ex- 
pected that  it  should  also  be  ages  in  its  application 
and  fruits  in  the  lives,  communities,  and  nations  of 
men.  A  tree  that  has  been  growing  so  long  will 
long  bear  fruit.  Instead  of  being  near  the  end  of 
the  world,  we  are  near  the  beginning.  This  is  the 
morning,  not  the  evening,  twilight  of  the  great  day 
of  the  Lord.  But  many  who  are  most  profoundly 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Revelation  falter  in  their 
confidence  of  its  results.  They  believe  the  Creator 
has  constructed  a  wonderful  moral  machinery,  so  to 
speak,  but  they  doubt  its  power  and  success.  They 
despair  of  the  improvement  of  mankind,  scorn  the 
zeal  of  reformers,  and  stand  upon  it  as  an  incontro- 
vertible position,  that  if  the  world  always  has  been 
rude  and  barbarous,  it  always  must  be ;  there  is 
nothing  new  under  the  sun ;  the  universe  can  only 
go  on  repeating  itself.  The  introduction  of  the 
time  element  into  our  survey  of  Revelation  corrects 
this  narrow  scepticism.  As  it  lifts  our  eyes  to  the 
venerable  past,  it  turns  them  also  to  the  splendid 
future.  It  assures  us  that  Hope  is  greater  than 
Memory,  and  that  Prophecy  surpasses  History.  All 
the  triumphs  which  Christianity  has  thus  far  achieved 
are  but  beginnings.  It  has  not  yet  entered  the 
heart  of  the  world  and  carried  captive  every  thought 
to  Christ.  But  it  will  go  on  for  ages,  to  which  the 
lives  of  individuals  are  but  as  drops  to  the  bucket, 
winning  new  victories  over  evil  and  sin,  transform- 
ing institutions,  moulding  and  coloring  more  per- 


38  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

fectly  the  heart  of  humanity  after  a  Divine  type  and 
hue,  and  domesticating  the  kingdom  of  God  among 
the  sons  of  men. 

II.  Agents  and  Examples.  —  Again,  the  manner 
of  Revelation  is  not  abstract,  but  concrete.  The 
ordinary  as  well  as  supernatural  agencies  are  em- 
ployed. If  angels  are  sent,  so  are  men  ;  if  the  special 
messenger  raised  up,  sanctified,  and  commissioned 
be  the  Son  of  God  by  excellence,  yet  a  long  line 
of  the  good  and  the  great  bear  up  the  ark  of  God ; 
and  patriarch,  king,  and  priest,  and  prophet,  and 
apostle,  are  seen  at  different  intervals  along  the 
majestic  procession.  In  selecting  men  to  act  so  dis- 
tinguished a  part  in  the  designs  of  God  towards  his 
children,  we  perceive  a  part  of  the  same  system 
which  we  witness  in  business,  art,  science,  govern- 
ment, and  literature.  For  if  "  History  be  philoso- 
phy teaching  by  example,"  then  is  Revelation  re- 
ligion teaching  by  example.  In  this  feature  of  the 
mode  of  communication  we  see  the  wise  adaptation 
of  means  to  ends,  the  use  of  causes  to  produce 
effects,  such  as  we  should  anticipate  from  so  great  a 
Designer.  To  every  abstruse  principle,  to  every 
divine  sentiment,  is  assigned  some  magnified  and 
brilliant  example,  exhibiting  it  in  a  more  impressive 
and  really  true  light,  that  the  world  might  look  on 
and  admire,  and  catch  the  contagion  of  truth  and 
goodness.  Hence  Abraham  stands  for  faith,  Job  for 
patience,  Joseph  for  purity,  David  for  piety,  Solomon 
for  wisdom,  Daniel  for  faithfulness,  Paul  for  zeal,  and 


THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  39 

John  for  love.  In  the  changing  moods  of  the  human 
mind,  and  the  different  experiences  of  life,  how  much 
good  is  often  done  by  the  presentation  of  some  clear 
and  unquestionable  example  of  a  failing  virtue  re- 
stored, or  an  imperfect  excellence  brightened!  We 
see  and  admire.  We  touch  but  the  hem  of  the  gar- 
ment of  some  one  of  this  "  sacramental  host  of 
God,"  and  their  virtue  passes  into  us,  and  we  be- 
come whole  and  strong. 

Are  we  told  that  errors  and  imperfections  attend 
the  development  of  divine  truth  by  so  many  differ- 
ent characters,  and  that  Moses  loses  his  faith,  David 
his  integrity,  and  that  Peter  dissimulates  ?  But  in- 
spiration of  ideas  does  not  imply  perfection  of  con- 
duct any  more  than  it  does  universality  of  knowledge, 
and  though  the  treasure  of  God  be  in  an  earthen 
vessel,  the  vessel  still  remains  earthen,  coarse,  liable 
to  fracture  and  flaw.  Then  it  is  plain  that  all  that 
is  lost  by  the  sins  and  faults  of  prophets  and  apostles 
is  compensated  by  the  boundless  variety  and  combi- 
nation of  intellectual  and  moral  qualities,  in  all  their 
stages  and  manifestations.  The  wants  of  mankind 
could  only  be  adequately  met  by  a  book  of  such  sur- 
passing richness  and  complexity  as  the  Bible.  A 
plain  legal  statement  would  not  have  done  it.  A 
simple,  colorless,  passionless  exhibition  of  the  truth, 
a  constitutional  abstract  and  codification  of  the  laws 
of  God  in  unfigurative,  unimpassioned  words,  would 
scarcely  have  converted  a  soul.  But  the  Scriptures 
heave  with  a  human  life  as  well  as  with  the  Divine 


40  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

spirit.  They  interest  our  affections,  our  hopes  and 
fears,  our  wonder  and  love.  Interesting  faces  look 
out  upon  us  from  this  truly  "  pictorial"  book,  picto- 
rial though  artist  had  never  taken  his  tool  to  engrave 
and  illustrate  it ;  some  are  scarred  with  passion,  some 
are  haggard  with  fear,  but  others  are  sweet  and 
celestial,  grave  and  mystic,  with  an  expression  im- 
bued from  a  world  beyond  this.  The  truth  is  accord- 
ingly not  merely  told,  but  illustrated,  embodied,  solidi- 
fied in  acts.  For  everything  good  there  is  an  example 
to  win,  for  everything  bad  there  is  an  example  to  warn. 
So  far  then  as  Revelation  is  history  and  biography, 
or  changes  at  times  its  strain  t6  a  dramatic  and 
poetic  form,  it  shows  a  comprehension  such  as  we 
look  for  in  vain  in  the  Veds  of  the  Hindoos,  or  the 
Koran.  The  Almighty  moves  forth  in  his  power 
and  love,  but  he  is  attended  by  groups  of  his  chil- 
dren, toiling,  suffering,  ecstatic,  glorified,  showing 
forth  all  that  is  highest  and  deepest  in  their  nature 
as  spiritual  beings,  in  their  attitude  towards  Him, 
towards  one  another,  and  towards  their  future  and 
eternal  destiny.  In  this  light  there  are  no  charac- 
ters like  the  Bible  characters,  and  none  have  seized 
so  profoundly  on  the  imagination  of  the  artist  as  well 
as  the  faith  of  the  saint.  These  advantages  of  an 
historical  and  charactered  revelation  are  fulfilled 
not  only  in  relation  to  the  lower  and  preliminary 
elements  of  truth  ;  but  Jesus  came  also  to  reduce  the 
loftiest  ideal  to  a  life,  to  give  the  diamond  a  golden 
setting.     **  For,"  says  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 


'^  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  41 

"  verily  he  took  not  on  him  the  nature  of  angels,  but 
he  took  on  him  the  seed  of  Abraham.  "Wherefore  in 
all  things  it  behooved  him  to  be  made  like  unto  his 
brethren ;  that  he  might  be  a  merciful  and  faithful 
High-Priest  in  things  pertaining  to  God,  to  make 
reconciliation  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  For  in  that 
he  himself  hath  suffered,  being  tempted,  he  is  able 
to  succor  them  that  are  tempted." 

III.  I  pass  to  Languages  and  Books.  —  In  two  prin- 
cipal languages,  Hebrew  and  Greek,  with  a  few  pas- 
sages in  the  Chaldee,  —  in  sixty-six  books,  written  by 
at  least  thirty-nine  authors, — the  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian Scriptures  present  that  fertility  of  human  genius, 
as  well  as  of  sacred  truth,  that  fitly  entitles  it  to 
be  called  the  Bible,  The  Book. 

As  one  book,  there  is  something  beautiful  in  the 
idea,  that  between  its  lids  is  treasured  up  an  amount 
of  wisdom  and  truth  in  reference  to  life,  such  as  the 
combined  literature  of  the  world  in  all  ages  and  na- 
tions might,  however  diligently  sifted  and  extracted, 
be  challenged  in  vain  to  produce.  The  binding  up 
of  the  works  of  the  earlier  with  those  of  the  later 
dispensation  may  have  the  ill  effect  to  put  Moses  on 
a  basis  of  equal  authority  with  Christ  to  some 
minds,  but  there  is  at  least  the  benefit  of  presenting 
the  whole  system,  from  its  earliest  dawn  to  its  last 
development,  in  one  sizable  volume.  Or,  if  we  come 
to  the  New  Testament,  we  find  in  a  range  less  than 
that  of  an  ordinary  history  or  tale  of  fiction  the  con- 
densed lessons,  life,  deeds,  death,  resurrection,  and 

4* 


42  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

ascension  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  characters  and  teach- 
ings of  his  disciples,  the  history  of  the  young  Church? 
with  its  early  persecutions  and  controversies,  and  the 
predictions  of  its  final  glory. 

Language,  it  is  true,  is  a  human  and  imperfect 
method  of  communication,  but  so  are  all  mediums. 
The  very  fact  that  we  are  finite  implies  of  course 
that  all  our  circumstances,  means  of  access  from 
mind  to  mind,  are  likewise  finite  and  imperfect. 
Revelation  in  this  aspect  sustains  the  closest  anal- 
ogy with  all  the  gifts  of  God.  All  are  liable  to  be 
misunderstood  and  to  be  abused,  and  the  truth  itself 
may  become  a  savor  of  death  unto  death.  In  fact 
wisdom  appears  in  this  very  provision.  For  if  Rev- 
elation were  demonstration,  if  the  truths  of  our  moral 
nature  were  based  upon  the  same  ground  as  those 
of  mathematics,  if  it  were  as  easy  to  show,  for  in- 
stance, the  truth  of  our  immortality,  as  to  prove  the 
forty-fifth  problem  of  Euclid,  where  would  be  man's 
free  moral  agency,  his  room  for  choice,  for  the  work- 
ing of  his  affections  and  preferences,  and  all  those 
delicate  operations  of  the  mind,  by  which  the  truth 
may  become,  so  to  speak,  his  truth,  realized,  domes- 
ticated, and  lived  by  him  ?  The  Great  "Will  of  all 
wishes  not  to  override  our  wills,  nor  His  intellect  to 
overpower  ours.  For  while  His  communications 
have  authority,  they  do  not  encroach  on  our  freedom. 
So  that  even  Revelation  is  not  open  vision.  It  has 
its  veil  untaken  away.  We  read  it  in  a  human  lan- 
guage, in  an  ancient  language  or  a  translation,  and 


THE    MANNER    OF   REVELATION.  43 

more  or  less  of  error  must  mix  with  the  instrument 
of  communication.  Then  too  we  read  it  with  our 
erroneous,  prejudiced,  though  truth-seeking  minds. 
The  authors  also  were  men  of  like  passions  as  we 
are,  however  exalted  by  inspiration  and  by  goodness  ; 
and  their  peculiar  illustrations,  their  feelings,  their 
arguments,  their  conceptions,  all  appear  on  the  page. 
It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  the  whole  value  of  Revelation 
is  destroyed  by  its  liability  to  these  errors,  for  then 
we  should  include  all  the  blessings  of  life  in  the  same 
sweeping  conclusion.  The  very  air  and  sunlight 
may  be  tortured  and  perverted  into  curses  instead  of 
benefits.  But  that  wicked  cunning  of  man  does  not 
prove  the  one  to  be  only  a  deadly  breath,  nor  the 
other  a  noxious  beam.  Revelation  was  designed  to 
be  a  positive  and  incalculable  good  to  man  ;  but,  giv- 
en to  finite  creatures,  it  must  have  finite  limitations 
and  accidents.  Had  it  been  written  in  great  letters 
of  fire  across  the  overarching  sky,  man  could  still 
have  his  option  of  reading  or  not  the  celestial  hand- 
writing. Had  not  only  Sinai,  but  every  hill  and 
mountain,  thundered  forth  the  solemn  message  of 
love  and  warning,  the  sound  would  at  last  die  away 
on  listless  ears,  as  do  indeed  the  thunders  of  the  sky, 
the  cataract,  and  the  ocean.  God  has  written  on  the 
heavens  a  sublime  lesson  ;  he  has  spoken  in  the  winds 
and  waters  holy  lessons;  but  they  were  not  suffi- 
cient. Therefore  he  came  nigh,  —  to  use  the  Biblical 
phrase, —  he  came  nigh  to  man,  he  spoke  in  prophet 
and  apostle ;  he  gave  man  a  book,  the  book,  the  book 


44  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

of  truth  and  love;  and  when  properly  read,  when 
search*ed  with  the  spirit  and  love  of  the  truth,  when 
used,  not  as  a  blind  charm  or  spell  to  work  some 
mysterious  and  unintelligible  change,  but  to  act  in 
harmony  with  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  laws,  to 
enlighten,  to  move,  and  to  purify  the  soul,  the  book 
of  revelation  does,  and  has,  in  cases  without  num- 
ber, become  the  book  of  salvation.  "  Thy  creatures," 
said' the  greatest  English  philosopher  in  a  prayer, 
"  have  been  my  books,  but  thy  Scriptures  much 
more.  I  have  sought  thee  in  the  courts,  fields,  and 
gardens,  but  I  have  found  thee  in  thy  temples." 

Here  are  flowers  of  every  hue  and  fragrance,  fruits 
of  every  taste  and  nutriment.  The  sinner  cannot 
read  far  without  meeting  with  his  warning,  nor 
the  saint  without  hearing  his  beatitude,  nor  the  sad 
without  alighting  upon  his  consolation,  nor  the  weak 
without  touching  the  wand  of  spiritual  strength,  nor 
the  poor  without  opening  the  mine  of  heavenly  treas- 
ures, nor  the  rich  without  being  reminded  that  they 
brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  that  they  can 
carry  nothing  out.  When  did  we  open  this  book, 
and  our  eyes  not  rest  upon  a  sentence  that  seemed 
to  have  a  meaning  for  us  ?  Dr.  Greenwood  once 
remarked,  that  he  always  liked  to  sweeten  his  mind 
with  some  text  from  the  Bible  before  retiring  to  rest 
at  night.  When  did  we  peruse  it  carefully  and  re- 
flectingly,  and  not  find  something  that  we  never 
thought  of  before  ?  *'  Every  time  I  read  the  Bible," 
said  Mr.  Adams,  "  I  understand  some  passages  which 


THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  45 

I  never  understood  before."  When  did  we  bring  to 
this  volume  our  hearts,  sick  with  life,  pierced  with 
its  thorns,  torn  and  wounded  with  its  sorrows,  torpid 
in  moral  sense,  and  not  discover  what  rekindled  as  by 
the  breath  of  heaven  our  dying  resolutions,  harmon- 
ized anew  to  the  eternal  song  of  gratitude  the  heart- 
strings jangled  and  out  of  tune,  and  sent  the  thrilling 
conviction  through  all  the  recesses  of  the  inner  world, 
that  we  belong  to  God,  and  God  to  us,  in  ties  never 
to  be  broken?  Here  angels  sing  ;  here  Christ  pleads ; 
here  God  commands ;  here  heaven  shines ;  here  eter- 
nity speaks.  Man,  weak,  misguided,  forgetful,  rash, 
earth-bound  man,  with  all  his  sins,  sorrows,  and  cares 
heavy  about  him,  but  with  all  the  sensibilities  of  an 
immortal  nature,  cannot  come  to  such  a  book,  and 
not  find  in  its  generous  abundance,  its  king's  feast, 
some  food  for  his  appetite,  some  delicacy  for  his  con- 
valescence, or  some  bread  for  his  strength.  The  very 
things  that  make  it  an  imperfect  book  in  itself,  as  a 
work  of  art,  make  it  a  perfect  book  for  his  case  as  a 
sinner.  Its  artlessness  is  its  adaptation  ;  its  variety 
is  its  power ;  its  human  aspects  are  its  cords  of  sym- 
pathy, and  its  need  of  study  and  research  leave  man 
free,  so  that  his  goodness  shall  be  his  own  choice, 
aided,  but  not  necessitated,  by  higher  power. 

IV.  Miracles.  This  is  one  important  feature  of 
the  manner  of  Revelation.  Some  are  so  constituted, 
that  miracles  seem  rather  to  obstruct  than  advance 
their  faith ;  some  so  pure,  that  they  listen  and  obey 
the  truth  for  the  truth's  sake.     But  the  most  of  us 


46  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

are  so  earthly-minded  that  some  extraneous  means 
to  arouse  us  from  indifference  are  needed.  We  want 
a  rap  from  the  Master's  desk  to  remind  us  that  he 
has  something  of  importance  to  say,  to  which  he 
wishes  us  to  hearken.  We  want  a  bell  rung  to  call 
us  to  the  temple  of  the  Lord  to  receive  his  gracious 
message.  Miracles  are  that  rap  and  that  bell.  They 
prove  nothing  by  their  solitary  selves.  And  one 
egregious  error  in  reasoning  upon  them  has  been  the 
severance  of  miracles  from  the  great  end  with  which 
they  are  connected.  It  would  be  hard  to  defend  mir- 
acles in  general,  but  not  the  Christian  miracles ;  for 
they  subserve  a  great  and  good  end,  worthy  of  the 
interposing  finger  of  God.  We  should  hardly  have 
expected  that  disclosures  of  such  radiant  truth  and 
love  would  have  been  made,  unless  even  the  brute 
elements  had  broken  out  into  articulate  assent  to 
them,  the  sky  opened,  the  dove  descended,  and  the 
heavens  thundered. 

All  along,  too,  in  speaking  of  his  signs  and  won- 
ders, Jesus  very  remarkably  and  clearly  points  out 
their  office.  It  was  that  men  might  believe  on  him, 
and  believing,  have  life.  They  added  no  weight  to 
the  truth  as  truth,  but  they  did  add  weight  to  truth, 
as  received  by  the  ignorant,  the  degraded,  and  the 
inattentive.  They  spoke  to  their  wonder  and  mar- 
vellousness  and  curiosity,  traits  that  never  die  out  of 
the  lowest  specimens  of  mankind.  Miracles  were 
the  handwriting,  the  sign-manual,  that  the  messenger 
spoke  not  in  his  own  name,  but  by  the  authority  of 


THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  47 

his  Sovereign.  They  arrested,  seized  men's  attention. 
Everywhere  Jesus  had  throngs  to  hear  him,  the  first 
marked  attraction  being  that  he  healed  the  sick, 
raised  the  dead,  and  did  the  works  which  no  man 
could  do  unless  God  were  with  him.  His  wonderful 
deeds  become  as  much  a  part,  and  a  natural  and  ex- 
pected part,  of  his  life,  as  his  wonderful  words.  We 
sho.uld  have  thought  it  strange  if  so  great  and  good 
a  spirit  had  not  touched  the  secret  springs  of  the  uni- 
verse :  it  was  a  sign  and  token  that  God  was  with 
him,  and  when  other  things  agreed  with  it,  a  perfect 
and  persuasive  sign,  —  the  highest,  crowning  evi- 
dence of  a  Divine  mission. 

Thus  viewed,  miracles,  instead  of  being  an  ex- 
crescence, become  of  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
revelation  itself.  Their  presence  is  not  strange ; 
their  absence  would  have  been.  The  burden  of 
proof  would  seem  to  be,  since  such  and  such  other 
things  were,  —  perfect  truth,  and  love,  and  a  per- 
fect life,  —  to  show  not  that  miracles  were,  but  that 
they  were  not. 

Then  the  additional  thing  to  be  considered  is  the 
evidence  of  them  to  us.  If  we  can  trust  our  senses, 
can  we  trust  imperfect  human  evidence?  Hume 
says  we  cannot.  He  contends,  it  is  more  likely  that 
men  would  lie,  or  that  they  would  be  deceived,  than 
that  a  miracle  would  be  wrought.  Stronger  testi- 
mony, it  is  true,  would  seem  to  be  demanded,  but 
the  incredibility  of  miracles  is  not  so  great  but  that 
it  can  be  reasonably  overcome,  and  we  believe  has 


48  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

been,  in  the  case  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  A  jury 
of  twelve  men  decide  questions  of  life  and  liberty 
upon  weaker  evidence  than  is  afforded  in  the  Gos- 
pels for  the  fact  of  miracles.  Men  daily  act  in  the 
business  world  and  hang  their  fortunes  upon  contin- 
gencies more  remote  and  perilous  than  he  does  his 
faith  who  receives  the  miracles  in  full  confidence. 
But  time  does  not  allow  the  further  prosecution  of 
this  point. 

V.  Institutions  and  Ordinances.  —  The  manner  of 
Revelation  illustrates  its  wisdom,  not  only  in  its 
original  bequest,  but  also  in  its  means  of  perpetuity, 
diffusion,  and  influence.  Man  is  addressed  as  a  be- 
ing of  sense  as  well  as  of  soul.  The  embodiment 
of  the  truth  in  a  book  is  one  instance,  and  its  trans- 
mission so  little  corrupted  through  so  many  ages, 
and  its  spread  over  the  earth,  its  numerous  versions 
into  different  languages,  all  attest  the  fitness  of  the 
means  to  the  end,  and  verify  literally  the  words  that 
"  the  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth 
away,  but  the  word  of  the  Lord  endureth  for  ever." 

But  Revelation  also  has  its  institutions  and  ordi- 
nances, and  we  behold  in  these  likewise  the  same 
skill  in  suiting  cause  to  effect. 

The  institutions  of  Moses,  however  puerile  they 
may  seem  to  a  Christian,  were  yet  admirably  adapt- 
ed to  raise  up  a  low  and  barbarous  people,  and  give 
a  race  of  idolaters  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the 
One  True  and  Living  God.  They  were  in  truth  an 
infant  school,  seemingly  very  humble  and  rudimen- 


THE    MANxNER    OF    REVELATION.  49 

tary,  but  in  their  place  and  time,  and  for  their  end, 
just  as  needful  as  the  most  advanced  institutions 
to  Christendom.  The  illustrious  end  dignifies  the 
means.  That  end  was  the  best  we  can  conceive  of, 
to  bring  the  creature  into  communion  with  the  Cre- 
ator, to  raise  the  fallen  child  into  the  arms  of  the 
Heavenly  Father.  And  the  event  testified  that  the 
agencies  were  effectual.  The  standard  of  a  true  faith 
was  established.  Idolatry  began  to  retreat.  By  the 
lessons  and  discipline  of  centuries,  the  Jews  were 
weaned  from  their  proneness  to  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship the  works  of  their  own  hands,  and  a  way  was 
opened  for  the  still  higher  truths  of  the  Christian 
Revelation.  Not  a  thread  too  many,  then,  we  may 
say,  was  there  in  that  old  tapestry  of  the  Jewish 
tabernacle,  not  a  lamb  or  dove  offered  for  naught  in 
those  sacrifices  of  thousands  of  years ;  not  a  shekel 
was  levied  in  vain  for  that  gorgeous  temple  service, 
nor  a  splendor  too  dazzling  encircled  the  high-priest 
and  his  attendants  in  their  garb  ;  for  they  were  each 
and  all  an  education  to  the  Jews.  And  as  such,  how- 
ever insignificant  as  single  parts,  they  grow  into 
greatness  and  dignity  when  combined  together,  and 
viewed  as  the  polity  of  the  Divine  commonwealth  ; 
for  while  all  the  rest  of  men  were  worshipping 
stocks  and  stones,  leeks  and  onions,  snakes  and  croc- 
odiles, and  while  polished  Greece  had  her  temples  to 
the  unknown  God,  and  proud  Rome  deified  her  own 
sons,  the  Hebrew  slaves  from  Egypt  were  rising  up 
and  paying  homage  to  the  Eternal  King  of  kings. 


50  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  ^ 

Bat  if  we  turn  to  the  Christian  Revelation,  the  in- 
stitutions are  more  simple,  as  becomes  a  more  per- 
fect faith  and  spirituality.  What  is  adopted  from 
the  Jewish  system  —  as  the  use  of  one  day  in  seven 
for  religious  purposes,  baptism,  the  worship  of  the  syn- 
agogue, and  the  Passover  celebration  —  is  changed 
rather  by  example  than  specific  command,  lest  too 
much  importance  should  be  attached  to  them,  to  cor- 
respond to  the  ideas  of  the  new  dispensation.  The 
Sabbath  becomes  a  day  for  religious  and  social  wor- 
ship, the  commemoration  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week  of  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord.  The  rite  of 
baptism,  by  which  proselytes  were  received  from 
Gentilism,  is  adopted  to  signify  a  spiritual  washing 
and  purity  from  sin,  and  dedication  to  Christ  and 
God.  The  synagogue  service  is  converted  into  the 
adoration  of  the  Universal  Father  of  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, and  the  faith  of  his  Son,  the  Messiah.  The 
Passover  becomes  the  pathetic  emblem  of  "  the  lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  and  "  the 
showing  of  the  Lord's  death  until  he  come  "  in  the 
fulness  of  his  religion.  The  establishment  of  a 
Church,  or  body  of  believers,  in  which  these  things 
should  be  perpetuated,  was  just  as  natural  and  neces- 
sary, as  constitutional  laws  and  institutions  for  the 
perpetuity  of  freedom.  But  no  undue  stress  was 
laid  on  them,  as  all-essential.  They  come  recom- 
mended by  example  rather  than  by  explicit  precept. 
But  they  have  existed,  and  probably  will  exist  in 
every  age,  in  various  modes,  but  yet  expressing  the 


THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION.  51 

same  leading  purpose.  They  serve  to  keep  that 
ethereal  spirit  of  faith  and  Christian  devotion  from 
evaporating,  which  would  otherwise,  like  some  ex- 
quisite perfume,  exhale  to  the  general  air  and  be  lost. 
They  seem  to  be  needful  to  creatures  of  flesh  and 
blood,  of  days  and  mortal  life,  as  remembrances  of 
the  great  things  of  the  spirit,  the  monumental  facts 
of  a  world's  salvation  and  a  divine  interposition. 
Forms  are  not  absolute,  but  relative ;  not  essential, 
but  important ;  they  have  a  place,  but  it  is  not  the 
first  place.  They  are  a  species  of  gigantic  language, 
whose  letters  are  facts  and  whose  sentences  are  cus- 
toms. They  are  to  be  observed,  not  for  their  own 
sake,  but  for  the  spiritual  purport  they  imply  and 
convey.  Thus  kept,  they  are  vital  and  efficacious, 
and  they  are  never  livingly  observed  without  leaving 
behind  them  most  precious  results  in  refinement  and 
spirituality  of  character. 

The  manner  of  Revelation  is  thus  indicative  of  a 
Supreme  Designer,  in  relation,  —  1st.  To  the  extent  of 
time  through  which  it  extended  ;  2d.  The  agencies  and 
examples  by  which  it  was  effected ;  3d.  The  medium 
of  languages  and  books  through  which  it  is  diffused, 
after  its  oral  communication  ceased  ;  4th.  The  mira- 
cles by  which  it  was  impressively  attested  to  an  un- 
believing world  ;  and  5th.  The  institutions  and 
ordinances  by  which  it  is  perpetuated.  In  the  nat- 
ural world  it  is  a  great  awakener  of  devotion  to  the 
Most  High  Creator,  to  see  in  how  many  ways  there 
is  a  fitness  of  means  to  ends,  and  kindness  shown  in 


52  THE    MANNER    OF    REVELATION. 

every  least  thing.  But  the  economy  of  Nature  is 
paired  by  the  economy  of  Grace.  To  the  Christian, 
the  contemplation  of  the  fitness  and  harmonies  and 
adaptations  of  Revelation,  the  spiritual  creation, 
superinduced  on  the  other  and  natural  creation,  and 
constituting  its  crown  of  glory,  ought  even  more  to 
inspire  a  very  jubilee  of  praise  and  honor  to  the  In- 
finite Father  of  Christ  and  men. 


DISCOURSE    III. 


REVELATION   AND    REASON. 

UNDER8TANDE8T    THOU   WUAT   THOU   READEST  ?  —  ActS  viii.  30. 

Surely  it  was  a  beautiful  exemplification  of  the 
worth  of  conscientiousness  in  the  pursuit  of  truth, 
that  the  honest-minded  Ethiopian  should  receive  a 
special  visit  from  the  inspired  messenger,  to  scatter 
his  ignorance  with  the  beams  of  heavenly  light, 
whilst  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  held  many  a  disdainful 
doctor  of  the  law,  who  was  allowed  to  hug  his  con- 
ceited wisdom  unvisited  by  the  dayspring  from  on 
high.  But  the  eunuch  carried  in  his  swarthy  bosom, 
not  only  a  truth-loving  and  truth-seeking  heart,  but 
also  the  power  of  judging  between  truth  and  error, 
—  a  portion  of  the  universal  reason,  a  spark  of  the 
divine  intelligence,  which  constituted  him  rational, 
and  capacitated  him  to  receive  the  Gospel.  To  that 
faculty  Philip  appealed,  and  asked  him,  "  Under- 
standest  thou  what  thou  readest  ?  "  With  a  con- 
sciousness of  its  possession,  with  a  straightforward 
frankness,  and  withal  humility,  he  replied,  "  *  How 
can  I,  except  some  man  should  guide  me  ? '     And  he 


54  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

desired  Philip  that  he  would  come  up  and  sit  with 
him."  It  was  not  enough  that  his  heart  was  sincere 
and  his  piety  acceptable ;  his  understanding  also 
needed  to  be  instructed  in  new  views  of  the  prophet 
he  was  reading,  and  of  the  Saviour  therein  predicted. 
Philip  explained,  and  the  Ethiopian  believed. 

The  need  of  the  ^eunuch  was  not  a  solitary  one 
then,  nor  is  it  so  now.  The  question  of  the  text 
might  be  stereotyped  for  the  majority  of  the  human 
family,  Understandest  thou  what  thou  readest, — 
what  thou  hearest,  —  what  thou  seest  ?  A  mournful 
ignorance,  as  well  as  a  mournful  sinfulness,  overshad- 
ows the  world.  Ignorance,  sometimes  necessary  be- 
cause of  poverty  and  labor ;  ignorance,  sometimes, 
and  oftenest  in  our  day,  sinful,  being  the  consequence 
of  mental  sloth,  or  moral  indifference  ;  but  sometimes 
—  the  worst  case  of  all  —  ignorance  upon  principle, 
conscientious,  welcome,  intentional  ignorance.  In 
testimony  of  which  it  requires  only  to  be  stated,  that, 
at  different  periods  of  the  Christian  era,  the  follow- 
ing doctrines  have  been  openly  avowed  and  re- 
ceived :  —  that  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  were  not  to 
be  spread  before  the  mass,  as  they  lie  on  the  glorious 
page  of  Evangelist  and  Apostle,  but  were  first  to  be 
filtered  through  the  heads  of  popes  and  priests,  and 
administered  to  the  vulgar  as  they  were  able,  for- 
sooth, to  bear  them,  —  that  learning  was  a  dangerous 
foe  to  piety,  — •-  that  an  illiterate  clergy  were  the  best 
heralds  of  the  cross,  —  that  reason  was  not  to  be  em- 
ployed in  matters  of  faith.     Thus,  sad  to  say,  igno- 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  55 

ranee  has  been  perpetuated  and  recommended  upon 
principle.  Having  eyes,  men  have  conscientiously 
not  seen ;  having  minds,  they  have,  with  a  sense  of 
duty,  not  understood.  Spotted  as  the  page  of  his- 
tory is  with  drops  of  blood,  wet  as  it  is  with  tears, 
foul  as  it  is  with  vice,  it  has  hardly  any  darker  fea- 
ture than  this,  —  man  divesting  himself  of  his  noblest 
faculty  in  the  pursuit  of  his  noblest  end,  dethroning 
his  understanding  that  he  might  the  better  learn  his 
duty,  putting  out  his  eyes  that  he  might  the  more 
clearly  see  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  It  is  sad,  be- 
cause it  seems  like  his  voluntarily  laying  aside  what 
makes  him  human,  and  confounding  himself  with  the 
brute  race.  It  is  sad,  because  the  principle  has 
hatched  a  brood  of  monstrous  errors,  has  killed  the 
vitality  of  Christian  faith  at  home,  and  thrown 
stumbling-blocks  in  its  progress  abroad,  so  that  we 
know  not  which  to  call  the  greatest  bane  of  true  re- 
ligion, conscientious  ignorance  or  wilful  perversity. 

In  accordance  with  these  introductory  remarks,  the 
present  discourse  will  be  devote>d  to  the  vindication 
and  enforcement  of  the  great  truth,  often  overlooked 
and  often  misunderstood,  that  reason  is  to  be  used  in 
religion  as  in  other  departments  of  life,  and  that 
man's  ultimate  reliance,  for  faith  and  practice,  is  upon 
his  own  mind,  aided  by  God's  word. 

Man  is  gifted  with  a  faculty  or  capacity,  variously 
called,  in  common  parlance,  reason,  mind,  common 
sense,  understanding,  that  searches,  apprehends,  and 
judges  concerning  all  that  falls  within  its  cognizance. 


56  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

By  this  power,  in  proportion  as  it  is  swayed  by  hopes 
and  fears,  passion  and  conscience,  as  it  is  developed  by 
education  or  cramped  by  ignorance,  he  is  able  to  dis- 
criminate between  truth  and  error  upon  all  subjects 
whatsoever.  By  this  he  generalizes  principles  from 
facts,  and  predicts  facts  from  principles.  Into  this  cru- 
cible he  throws  arts,  sciences,  philosophies,  religions, 
and  the  dross  and  the  gold  are  divided.  Upon  this 
foundation  he  relies  for  opinions,  belief,  and  practice. 
It  is  his  sun  and  centre,  his  point  of  departure  and  his 
point  of  arrival.  For  by  it  he  determines  the  meaning 
even  of  Scripture  itself,  decides,  therefore,  what  to  be- 
lieve, what  do,  whom  worship,  and  which  of  the  nu- 
merous and  increasing  theories  of  Christianity  he 
shall  adopt  as  his  own. 

This  capacity  is  a  divine  principle  in  the  human 
soul,  as  well  as  Revelation  a  divine  communication. 
Both  are  the  offspring  of  the  Deity.  This  faculty  is 
divine,  as  it  is  the  direct  handiwork  of  the  Creator,  not 
an  inheritance  from  Adam,  for  "  there  is  a  spirit  in 
man,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  giveth  them 
understanding."  From  moment  to  moment,  he  im- 
pregnates it  with  his  celestial  fire,  gives  it  its  con- 
stant supply,  and  speaks  through  it  with  his  venerable 
authority,  which  none  shall  gainsay  with  impunity. 
It  is  divine,  as  it  lifts  man  above  all  other  creatures 
of  the  earth,  gives  him  a  citizenship  and  a  fellowship 
with  the  spiritual  intelligences  of  higher  worlds,  and 
distantly  assimilates  the  finite  child  to  the  Infinite 
Father,  enabling  us  to  "  be  followers  of  God,  as  dear 
children." 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  67 

Still  man  may  pervert  it.  What  does  he  not  per- 
vert? It  is  not  infallible,  like  Revelation;  but  it  is 
the  instrument  which  God  has  given  us  to  ascertain 
the  import  of  even  Revelation.  He  who  renounces 
it  abandons  one  of  the  highest  prerogatives  of  his 
being.  He  who  brings  against  it  "  a  railing  accusa- 
tion," does  nothing  less  than  slander  the  most  illus- 
trious specimen  of  the  Divine  workmanship  in  the 
world.  He  who  leaves  it  undeveloped,  or  allows  it  to 
languish  and  decay,  commits  a  deadlier  suicide  than 
taking  the  bodily  life.  He  who  loses  it  and  becomes 
insane,  is  justly  deemed  the  most  unfortunate  of  his 
kind,  as  absolved  even  from  moral  accountability, 
dead  to  the  power  of  improvement,  and,  for  the  time 
being,  sunken  into  a  condition  as  much  worse  than 
that  of  the  dumb  animal,  as  there  remain  to  him 
greater  powers  for  his  own  and  others'  injury.  Yet, 
even^^in  its  wildest  aberrations,  it  retains  the  glim- 
merings of  its  original  heavenly  light.  Its  ruins, 
like  those  of  the  fallen  archangel,  betoken  its  primi- 
tive splendor  and  might.  The  craziest  fanatic  some- 
times speaks  astonishing  truths,  and  the  walls  of  the 
lunatic's  abode  have  been  scribbled  over  with  verses 
of  uncommon  beauty  and  power. 

This  faculty,  in  conjunction  with  conscience  and 
the  moral  affections,  composes  man's  religious  na- 
ture, and  enables  him  to  receive  a  revelation.  Thus 
he  has  a  foundation  to  stand  upon.  He  can  under- 
stand and  apply  to  his  wants  the  gracious  communi- 
cations of  his  Maker,  and  thereby  "  lay  hold  on  eter- 
nal life." 


58  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

Since,  then,  man  was  endowed  with  reason,  it  was 
to  be  expected  that,  if  God  made  a  revelation  of  his 
will,  it  would  address  itself  to,  and  harmonize  with, 
that  capacity  in  the  recipient.  Since  we  were  created 
with  religious  natures  and  wants,  it  would  have  been 
a  signal  and  perplexing  departure  from  the  custom- 
ary modes  of  our  Heavenly  Father's  administration, 
if  the  religion  he  had  commissioned  to  exercise  our  na- 
tures and  satisfy  our  wants  had  warred  against  them. 

What  was  to  be  expected  has  been  fulfilled.  The 
truths  of  the  Gospel  possess  the  same  congeniality 
witk  the  human  soul,  as  bread  with  the  stomach,  and 
light  with  the  eye.  There  is  no  discrepancy  between 
the  workmanship  of  God  in  the  soul  and  the  ways 
of  God  in  the  Bible,  but  the  nicest  concord,  at  once 
beautiful  and  convincing.  The  Almighty  does  not^ 
contradict  himself.  Keason  and  Revelation  are  twin 
agents,  co-workers  in  the  cause  of  the  soul.  The 
mind  and  truth,  the  soul  and  its  Saviour,  have  a  re- 
ciprocal fitness  each  for  each.  Revelation  is  the 
teacher,  Reason  the  pupil.  Revelation  assists,  per- 
fects, does  not  supplant  or  dethrone  Reason.  With- 
out Revelation,  Reason  were  in  a  cold,  pale  twilight ; 
with  it,  man  is  surrounded  with  the  pure  light  and 
warm  flush  of  day.  Without  Reason,  Revelation 
were  of  no  more  significance  to  man  than  to  the  ox 
or  the  dove ;  with  it,  the  saving  truth  is  received, 
loved,  and  followed.  How  many  works  have  been 
powerfully  and  successfully  written  to  elucidate  the 
internal   evidence   of   Revelation,   a   large   part    of 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  59 

which  consists  in  the  facts  of  this  exquisite  harmony 
between  the  soul's  capacities  and  needs,  and  the 
truths  and  promises  of  the  Gospel ! 

But  in  dwelling  thus  upon  the  alliance  between 
Revelation  and  Reason,  it  is  not  in  the  least  implied 
that  man  does  not  receive,  through  the  Scriptures, 
original,  vital  communications  from  his  Maker. 
They  teach  many  things  above  Reason,  but  not  one 
syllable  against  it.  What  the  wisest  sages  had  spec- 
ulated about  with  painful  uncertainty,  Jesus  taught 
with  the  assurance  of  consciousness.  The  human 
heart,  the  Divine  counsels,  and  the  secrets  of  eternity 
were  unveiled  in  his  discourse,  and  stood  forth  as 
breathing  realities.  Old  truths  sprang  into  new  life 
and  power.  What  Reason  in  her  best  champions 
had  only  felt  after,  never  fully  found,  still  less  proved 
and  efficiently  spread  amongst  men,  was  now  clothed 
with  gigantic  might  and  celestial  beauty,  and  went 
forth  "  conquering  and  to  conquer."  He  gave  us  a 
Heavenly  Father,  and  opened  a  heavenly  hereafter 
before  us,  —  thus  giving  the  soul,  in  its  dark  and  dis- 
couraging struggle  with  evil,  all  needed  and  possible 
guidance,  strength,  warning,  and  consolation.  All  is 
plain  and  simple,  yet  how  glorious ! 

"  I  hope,"  said  the  distinguished  philosopher  and 
Christian,  John  Locke,  "  it  is  no  derogation  to  the 
Christian  religion  to  say,  that  the  fundamentals  of  it, 
that  is,  all  that  is  necessary  to  be  believed  in  by  all 
men,  are  easy  to  be  understood  by  all  men.  This  I 
thought  myself  authorized  to  say,  by  the  easy  and 


60  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

very  intelligible  articles  insisted  on  by  our  Saviour 
and  his  Apostles,  which  contain  nothing  but  what 
could  be  understood  by  the  bulk  of  mankind."  Men 
like  Locke,  Milton,  and  Newton,  the  mightiest  spirits 
God  ever  kindled  on  earth,  have  testified  to  the  rea- 
sonableness of  Christianity.  Locke  wrote  a  book  to 
show  it.  Revelation  has  come  from  their  searching 
investigations,  like  thrice-refined  gold  from  the  fur- 
nace, bright  and  undiminished.  Its  evidences,  its 
doctrines,  its  promises,  its  services,  are  all  seen  to  be 
founded  in  nature  and  common  sense,  as  well  as 
guaranteed  by  the  explicit  will  of  the  Most  High. 
They  have  consequently  remained  fixed  and  firm 
against  the  assaults  of  acute  infidels,  as  the  steady 
earth  beneath  the  gusty  winds  that  sweep  over  its 
surface.  They  commend  themselves  to  the  good  un- 
derstandings of  all,  and  testify  that  religion  is  emi- 
nently "  a  reasonable  service." 

But  here  a  distinction  is  needed  that  is  often  neg- 
lected. Because  Revelation  does  not  conflict  with 
Reason,  though  it  soars  above  Reason,  it  is  far  from 
being  asserted  that  it  does  not  contend  against  hu- 
man nature  and  character,  under  some  of  their  as- 
pects. It  harmonizes  with  the  higher,  but  clashes 
with  the  lower  nature.  This  is  our  battle,  spirit 
against  flesh,  and  flesh  against  spirit ;  in  taking  sides 
with  the  spirit.  Revelation  therefore,  fights  against 
the  dominion  of  the  flesh.  Indeed,  in  that  identical 
conflict  consists  its  virtue,  its  use ;  just  as  medicine 
makes  an  enemy  of  disease,  but  not  of  the  human 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  61 

constitution.  Religion  struggles,  as  for  life,  against 
the  passions  and  appetites  in  their  excesses.  Yet 
this  contest  is  often  mistaken  for  a  discordance  be- 
tween Reason  and  Revelation,  whereas  it  is  a  nota- 
ble instance  of  their  agreement.  For  when  Reason 
was  too  weak  of  her  single  strength  to  cope  with  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  Revelation  descended  as  a  kind 
friend  to  restore  the  reins  to  the  rightful  possessor. 
The  strict  Scripture  doctrines  may  strive  against 
worldliness  and  selfishness;  they  may  prick  men's 
hearts  with  pungent  expositions  of  truth,  earnest  en- 
forcements of  duty ;  —  Heaven  be  thanked  that  they 
do  I  —  but  they  are  all  justified  by  Reason.  They  are 
never  wanting  in  the  most  perfect  rationality.  For 
example,  the  truths  that  God  is  One,  is  a  Spirit,  is  to 
be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  truth,  are  hard  truths  for 
a  sensual  world  to  feel  and  obey,  but  they  stand  good 
to  Reason.  The  command  to  love  our  enemies  is 
probably  the  hardest  in  the  Bible  to  comply  with, 
honestly  and  heartily,  but  not  because  it  is  irrational ; 
it  is  seen,  when  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case  are 
considered,  to  be  reasonable,  sensible ;  but  because  it 
puts  the  curb  on  some  of  the  strongest  feelings  of 
the  human  heart.  It  is  at  the  antipodes  of  folly  or 
absurdity,  but  it  enjoins  self-restraint,  forbearance, 
forgiveness ;  therefore  the  natural,  that  is,  the  sen- 
sual, selfish  man,  receives  it  not,  loves  it  not.  So, 
universally.  In  one  word,  Revelation  may  conflict 
with  man's  evil  dispositions,  and  check  his  wrong 
tendencies ;  it  is  a  noble  proof  of  its  divinity  and  its 


62  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

efficacy,  that  it  does,  —  that  it  makes  alliance  with 
Reason  and  Conscience  against  their  formidable  as- 
sailants, but  with  Reason  and  Conscience  it  no  more 
wars  than  with  the  Supreme  Intelligence  from  which 
it  sprung.  Its  language  is  ever  that  of  "  truth  and 
soberness,"  its  spirit  a  "  spirit  of  power,  and  of  love, 
and  of  a  sound  mind." 

Since,  therefore.  Reason  capacitates  man  for  Reve- 
lation, and  harmonizes  with  it,  we  are  not  surprised, 
but  prepared,  to  find  that  Revelation  itself  enjoins 
with  deep  emphasis  the  exercise  of  Reason.  Per- 
petually it  appeals  to  the  rational  principles  in  man. 
It  invites  and  urges  him  to  test  the  disclosures  it 
makes  by  the  light  of  his  God-given  spirit,  "  the 
elder  Scripture."  Unlike  some  of  its  friends,  so  far 
from  denying  Reason  and  frowning  upon  free  in- 
vestigation, it  commands  the  vigorous  action  of  the 
mind  upon  its  truths  as  a  duty.  Its  precepts  are, 
to  "  search  the  Scriptures ;  not  to  believe  every 
spirit,  but  to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God ; 
to  prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good ; 
to  understand  the  Scriptures ;  to  judge  what  is  right ; 
to  be  men  and  not  children  in  understanding ;  to  be 
ready  always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that 
asketh  you  a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  you,  with 
meekness  and  fear."  Indeed,  what  is  the  aim  and 
sum  of  Revelation,  but  God  reasoning  with  and  in- 
structing his  erring  children,  making  known  to  them 
truths  above  and  beyond  what  their  unaided  minds 
could  have  reached,   setting  before   them   motives 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  63 

loftier  than  this  world  could  furnish,  and  leading 
their  hopes  and  aspirations  upward  to  a  life  of  eter- 
nal bliss  and  glory  ? 

In  the  next  place,  it  may  be  remarked,  that  facts 
substantiate  what  has  now  been  said  of  the  connec- 
tion between  Reason  and  Revelation,  so  far  as  the 
practice  of  all  denominations  of  Christians  extends. 
Not  one  exception  can  be  found.  All  use  reason, 
all  appeal  to  it,  all  abide  by  it,  or  by  what  to  them 
is  Reason.  Where  is  the  sect  that  does  not  exer- 
cise the  understanding  upon  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  duties  of  life?  Is  it  said  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  rests  his  faith  on  tradition  and  the 
infallibility  of  his  Church?  Then  tradition  and  the 
infallibility  of  his  Church  are  his  sufficient  reasons 
for  his  faith.  He  keeps  on  good  terms  with  his  un- 
derstanding. Is  it  asserted  that  the  mystic  believes 
in  emotions,  feelings,  divine  promptings,  which  he 
can  neither  analyze  nor  understand?  Then  certain 
operations  of  his  own  mind  are  his  ultimate  grounds 
of  faith,  and  to  him  entirely  rational  grounds.  He 
has  no  quarrel  with  Reason  in  his  own  soul,  how- 
ever mad  he  may  seem  to  other  men.  Is  it  stated 
that  some  believe  in  doctrines  which  present  a  down- 
right contradiction  to  Reason,  —  as  that  there  are 
three  persons  in  the  Godhead,  and  yet  only  one  God  ? 
Still  their  faith  is  just  as  rational  to  them  as  mine 
is  to  me,  who  believe  that  there  is  only  one  person 
in  the  Godhead.  Their  faith  is  placed  on  that  which 
has  to  them  the  greatest  evidence  of  its  being  true, 


64  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

and  is  accordingly  the  most  reasonable  to  them.  Is 
it  said  that  they  place  their  faith,  not  on  Reason,  but 
on  the  Bible  ?  In  that  case,  the  Bible  is  their  Rea- 
son ;  at  least,  they  have  reasons  for  making  the  Bible 
their  Reason.  Thus  all  sects  do,  in  fact,  whatever 
may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  appeal  to  Reason,  first 
or  last,  in  one  way  or  another.  What  are  religious 
controversies,  in  which  all  sects  have  participated, 
but  reasonings  on  this  side  and  that,  to  develop  the 
relative  strength  of  each?  What  are  the  volumes 
of  Evidences  of  Christianity,  of  which  every  de- 
nomination has  contributed  its  useful  portion,  but 
a  solemn  appeal  at  the  bar  of  Reason  in  vindication 
of  the  truths  of  the  Bible  ?  What  are  Commen- 
taries, but  helps  to  make  the  Scriptures  better  under- 
stood, to  take  faith  off  of  the  ground  of  implicit  trust, 
and  plant  it  more  on  that  of  personal  knowledge  and 
conviction  ?  What  are  Sunday  schools,  sermons, 
lectures,  tracts,  periodicals,  but  means  to  make  more 
intelligent,  as  well  as  more  pious  Christians  ?  Is  it 
not  most  evident,  from  this  review  of  the  beliefs  and 
operations  of  all  Christian  denominations,  that  they 
use  Reason  in  religion  as  in  other  departments  of 
life  ?  These  interrogations  are  so  plain,  that  none 
but  affirmative  answers  can  be  given  them.  It  will 
therefore  be  seen  to  be  a  mistake,  or  to  be  mere  affec- 
tation, to  say  that  Reason  is  not  to  be  employed  in 
matters  of  faith  and  practice,  when  in  truth  all  use 
it  habitually,  and  must  use  it  more  or  less,  or  sink 
themselves  to  the  level  of  the  irrational  brute.     No 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  65 

man  can,  no  man  does,  proceed  one  step  in  belief, 
in  interpretation,  in  conduct,  without  the  guidance 
of  Reason. 

Wherein,  then,  it  may  occur  to  some  minds,  are 
Unitarians,  or  Rational  Christians,  different  in  respect 
to  this  point  from  other  sects,  which  would  perhaps 
deem  the  epithet  Rational  to  be  a  stigma  ?  They 
are  said  to  be  different ;  it  is  rumored  all  over  the 
country  that  they  are  a  denomination  by  themselves  ; 
Christendom  looks  upon  them  with  suspicion. 
What  is  their  dark  offence?  They  reason,  but  so 
does  the  Roman  Catholic.  They  use  their  under- 
standings in  religion,  but  so  does  the  Trinitarian. 
They  throw  the  lights  of  Biblical  criticism  upon  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  that  they  may  the  more  nearly 
arrive  at  the  true  sense  of  the  inspired  volume,  but 
so  equally  does  the  Episcopalian.  What  then  is 
their  crime  ?  Wherein  is  the  point  of  difference  ? 
Simply,  so  far  as  yet  appears,  the  distinction  consists 
in  their  arriving  at  different  results  by  the  exercise 
of  Reason  ;  not  in  their  using  Reason,  and  other 
sects  not  using  it.  They  lay  stress  upon  the  tenet 
which  all  actually  employ.  They  avow  earnestly 
the  principle  which  all  adopt,  if  we  may  judge  of 
their  rules  by  their  practice. 

But  here  a  new  element  appears.  It  is  charged 
upon  them  that  they  make  Reason  their  goddess, 
that  they  exalt  her  above  Revelation.  If  this  were 
so,  then  they  would  indeed  be  a  unique  sect.  But 
is  it  so  ?     Let  us  see  whether,  in  matters  of  faith 

G* 


66  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

and  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  they  do 
not  take  the  same  course  which  all  take. 

First,  in  regard  to  Faith.  It  niay  be  laid  down 
as  an  axiom,  that  belief  always  rests  on  evidence 
of  some  sort,  and  that  where  there  is  no  evidence, 
it  is  quite  impossible  that  there  should  be  any  be- 
lief; the  nature  of  faith  precludes  it.  The  evidence 
may  be  small,  —  may  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  ma- 
jority of  men;  but  evidence  of  some  kind,  of  some 
degree,  is  indispensable.  If  a  doctrine  is  positively 
irrational,  it  may  be  a  call  with  here  and  there  a 
mind  to  put  forth  more  faith  to  embrace  it,  but  with 
most  it  would  prevent  all  faith  whatever.  But  even 
in  this  extreme  case,  the  Reason  that  is  wanting  in 
one  direction  is  supplied  in  another,  else  faith  were 
still  an  impossibility.  Thus  some  Christians  believe 
in  doctrines  which  they  acknowledge  are  irrational, 
because  the  creed,  or  Church,  or  Bible,  as  they  sup- 
pose, upholds  them ;  and  then  the  creed,  or  Church, 
or  Bible,  is  their  reason  and  evidence,  though  all 
other  reason  and  evidence  be  against  them.  The 
Unitarian  exercises  his  reason  in  settling  the  founda- 
tions of  his  faith ;  thus  doing  as  all  others  do,  and 
must  do.  But  the  question  arises.  Does  he  not  set 
Reason  above  Revelation  ?  So  it  has  been  reported 
everywhere.  No,  never.  He  finds  no  occasion  for 
such  a  competition  between  the  dictates  of  his  mind 
and  the  doctrines  of  the  Scriptures.  What  Revela- 
tion teaches,  he  believes  in,  because  it  is  perfectly 
rational,  as  well  as  because  Revelation  teaches  it. 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  67 

Is  it  inquired,  whether  he  would  believe  in  a  doc- 
trine that  was  entirely  irrational,  provided  the  Scrip- 
tures contained  it  ?  His  reply  is,  that  he  is  not  re- 
duced to  this  alternative  of  crucifying  Reason  or 
renouncing  Revelation.  The  supposition  is  impossi- 
ble. Christianity  never  does  teach  any  thing  but 
what  is  reasonable,  and  therefore  nothing  but  what 
he  can  and  does  believe.  It  were  a  daring  propo- 
sition to  advance,  that  God  has  contradicted,  in  one 
mode  of  his  communication  of  truth,  what  he  teaches 
us  by  another.  It  is  just  as  absurd  to  ask,  whether 
we  would  believe  an  irrational  doctrine  because 
Revelation  taught  it,  as  whether  we  would  do  a 
vicious  act  because  Revelation  enjoined  it.  The 
cases  are  parallel,  but  neither  is  for  a  moment  sup- 
posable.  The  Bible  violates  neither  Reason  ncr 
Conscience :  it  offers  no  irrational  doctrine  for  us  to 
believe,  —  it  commands  no  vicious  deed  for  us  to  do. 
To  the  view  now  presented  of  the  necessity  of  in- 
telligibleness  in  what  we  believe,  and  of  evidence  as 
a  basis  for  faith,  it  is  objected,  that  we  are  surround- 
ed by  mysteries,  understand  little  in  reality,  and 
believe  in  many  things  which  we  cannot  explain. 
Two  things  are  confounded  in  such  an  objection, 
which  ought  to  be  carefully  distinguished.  I  may 
believe  in  that  which  is  above  Reason,  but  that  is 
quite  different  from  believing  in  that  which  is  against 
Reason.  I  may  believe  in  mysteries,  or,  in  the  popu- 
lar sense  of  that  word,  in  many  incomprehensible 
things,  —  things  above  men's  experience  and  knowl- 


68  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

edge.  I  believe,  for  example,  in  the  existence  of 
God,  which  I  can  neither  comprehend  nor  explain. 
But  observe,  I  believe  in  the  fact  that  he  exists, 
which  fact  is  supported  by  most  abundant  proof; 
I  do  not  believe  in  the  mode  of  his  existence ;  I  am 
not  assured  how  he  fills  all  with  his  august  presence, 
and  I  can  only  believe  as  far  as  I  have  evidence  for 
my  belief.  So  far  as  his  existence  is  a  fact,  I  believe 
in  it;  so  far  as  it  is  a  mystery,  I  cannot  believe  in 
it,  because  I  have  no  grounds  for  belief.  I  believe 
in  the  revolutions  of  worlds  around  worlds,  through 
all  the  boundless  heavens  above  and  below,  but  I 
cannot  understand  nor  elucidate  the  nature  and 
essence  of  those  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces 
that  bind  those  stupendous  masses  in  the  exactest 
harmony  as  they  fly  on  their  swift  courses.  I  be- 
lieve in  the  fact  for  which  there  is  good  evidence, 
not  in  the  mystery,  the  how,  for  which  there  is  none. 
The  secrets  of  attraction  and  gravitation  cannot  be 
classed  amongst  matters  of  faith,  because  there  is  no 
proof  what  those  secrets  are.  The  facts  are  all  that 
can  come  within  the  bounds  of  credence.  Nobody 
else,  any  more  than  the  Unitarian,  believes  in  irra- 
tional doctrines,  that  is,  doctrines  irrational  to  the 
believer.  It  cannot  be  done.  The  doctrines  must 
move  over  from  the  ground  of  No-Reason  to  the 
ground  of  Reason,  before  they  can  be  believed.  Evi- 
dence of  many  kinds  there  is,  but  evidence  of  some 
kind  there  must  be,  or  belief  is  dead.  The  most 
absurd  things  in  the  world  have  been  believed,  not 


REVE1.ATION    AND    REASON.  69 

as  they  were  absurd,  but  as  they  had  some  basis  of 
Reason,  however  narrow  or  shallow.  To  speak  of 
Faith  without  Reason  would  be  to  say  that  there 
were  rivers  without  fountains,  and  effects  without 
causes.  In  exercising  his  Reason  in  matters  of 
Faith,  the  Unitarian  does  no  more  than,  nor  differ- 
ently from,  all  other  Christian  believers. 

Next,  turn  to  th^  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. 
Unitarians  are  accused  of  setting  their  reason  up  as 
a  standard  above  the  Bible.  But  they  do  no  such 
thing.  They  but  do  what  all  do.  If  they  err,  then 
all  err,  in  using  their  minds  to  understand  the  word 
of  God.  The  Bible  is  our  standard.  What  it 
teaches  respecting  truth  and  duty,  we  receive,  we 
believe  in,  with  implicit  love  and  trust  But  the 
grand,  dividing  question  is.  What  does  it  teach  ?  It 
is  not  the  same  thing,  the  same  sense,  to  all.  The 
Bible  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  meaning  of 
the  Bible,  and  that  meaning  varies  with  every  mind. 
It  teaches  one  set  of  doctrines  to  the  Baptist,  an- 
other to  the  Quaker,  another  to  the  Methodist. 
"  Men  labor,"  as  Cecil  acutely  remarked,  "  to  make 
the  Bible  their  Bible."  In  fact,  every  sect  has  its 
own  Bible,  inasmuch  as  each  has  its  own  sense  of 
the  book.  The  Scriptures,  then,  are  the  standard, 
but  it  is  a  different  standard  to  different  men.  Re- 
ligious controversy  is  the  struggle  which  each  de- 
nomination makes  to  render  the  Bible  their  Bible. 
Reformation  in  the  Christian  Church  is  but  the  con- 
stant bringing  of  man's  sense  of  Sacred  Writ  nearer 


70  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

to  its  absolute  sense,  the  one  God  gave  it ;  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  imperfect  human  idea  up  to  the 
glorious  clear  significance  of  the  Divine  Mind. 

Nor  is  this  difficulty  of  arriving  at  the  absolute 
truth  of  the  sacred  volume  escaped  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  creeds.  For  if  not  at  first,  which  is 
generally  the  case,  yet  afterwards,  the  creed,  like  the 
Bible,  conveys  different  senses  to  different  minds, 
and  so  what  was  designed  for  an  explanation  soon 
needs  itself  to  be  explained.  Hence  arise  ambigui- 
ties and  discussions ;  the  sectarian  banner  becomes 
itself  the  signal  of  war  ;  and  old  churches  and  assem- 
blies fall  to  pieces  to  be  reorganized  into  new  ones. 

Since,  then,  the  Bible,  though  the  directory  of 
faith  and  practice,  is  one  thing  to  one  man  arid 
another  to  another,  according  to  what  each  under- 
stands it  to  teach ;  since  there  is  variance  of  belief 
even  touching  fundamental  points,  —  what  is  done 
by  all,  but  to  fall  back  on  their  own  minds,  enlight- 
ened by  Revelation,  as  the  last  criterion  ?  Each  one 
claims  and  allows  the  supremacy  of  the  Scriptures, 
but  he  must  rely  on  his  own  mind  to  tell  him  what 
they  teach.  Probably  no  two  persons,  who  have 
read  the  Bible  understandingly,  and  reflected  ear- 
nestly on  religious  subjects,  think  exactly  alike. 
The  more  men  reflect,  the  more  they  differ,  and  the 
smaller  their  differences  become,  because  they  ap- 
proximate continually  nearer  to  absolute  truth. 
Modern  civilization  and  free  thought  multiply  sects 
in  profusion,  but  their  influence  is  to  make  "  the 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  71 

crooked  straight,  and  the  rough  ways  smooth,"  and 
to  unite  all  upon  the  essentials  of  Christianity. 

From  these  remarks,  it  will  be  clear  to  every  can- 
did mind,  that  in  regard  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  well  as  in  matters  of  faith,  Unitarians 
proceed  upon  no  novel  and  dangerous  principle  of 
using  their  Reason,  none  which  is  not  equally  adopted 
by  others  as  their  rule.  Precisely  like  other  denom- 
inations, they  refer  to  the  Bible  as  their  standard, 
and  to  their  minds  to  inform  them  what  that  stand- 
ard requires.  They  would  not  only  read,  but  under- 
stand, the  word  with  the  faculties  God  has  bestowed 
for  that  purpose.  They  hold  that  he  intended  his 
Revelation  should  be  understood,  as  indeed  with 
what  propriety  could  it  be  called  a  Revelation,  if  it 
were  not  intelligible  ?  Where  were  the  value  of  faith 
if  it  were  placed  at  random  ?  —  where  the  merit  of 
conduct,  if  action  were  indiscriminate  ? 

In  pursuance,  then,  of  what  has  been  intimated, 
it  is  proper  to  repeat,  that  Unitarians  differ  from 
other  Christians,  not  in  their  using  Reason,  or  ex- 
alting it  above  Revelation,  but  in  their  coming  to 
different  conclusions  by  the  exercise  of  that  faculty. 
This  is  "  the  very  head  and  front  of  their  offending." 
Reason  teaches  them  to  believe  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures;  the  miracles  of  Christ;  his  un- 
questionable authority  as  the  Son  of  God  and 
Saviour  of  men ;  in  the  reconciliation,  or  atonement, 
of  men  to  God  through  him ;  in  the  influences  of 
the    Holy   Spirit,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and 


72  REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

future  retribution.  These  they  receive  and  cherish, 
as  their  guide  in  life,  their  hope  in  death.  These, 
and  other  subsidiary  doctrines,  kindred  to  them, 
seem  to  be  as  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures  as  lan- 
guage allows.  They  cannot  believe  in  the  Trinity, 
in  total  depravity,  in  the  popular  doctrines  of  the 
atonement  and  of  election,  because  they  do  not  find 
them  in  the  Bible  to  believe.  Revelation,  as  well  as 
Reason,  disowns  them.  But  they  would  rather  their 
"right  hand  might  forget  her  cunning,"  and  their 
"  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  their  mouth,"  than  do 
any  violence  to  the  blessed  charter  of  their  privileges 
and  their  hopes.  They  would  not  for  worlds  be 
guilty  of  perverting  one  word  that  fell  from  the  sin- 
less lips  of  Jesus,  or  the  inspired  tongue  of  the  Apos- 
tles. They  use  their  own  minds  in  determining  what 
the  Book  of  Heaven  teaches,  because  they  deeply 
reverence,  not  because  they  "  lightly  esteem "  that 
volume.  But,  with  Paul,  "  they  had  rather  speak  five 
words  with  their  understanding,  than  ten  thousand 
words  in  an  unknown  tongue."  They  feel  that 
Reason  is  fallible,  therefore  they  cannot  trust  an- 
other man's,  but  must  hearken  to  their  own.  Rea- 
son is  fallible ;  therefore  they  would  use  it  with  great 
care  and  activity,  that  it  might  become  more  and 
more  trustworthy.  Reason  is  fallible;  it  may  be 
dimmed  by  worldliness,  or  warped  by  prejudice,  or 
stormed  by  passion;  therefore  they  cannot  dogma- 
tize, for  they  may  be  in  the  wrong,  and  others  in  the 
right.     They  marvel  how  others  can  dogmatize,  for 


REVELATION    AND    REASON.  73 

they  may  be  in  the  wrong,  and  themselves  in  the 
right.  They  see  no  danger  in  the  use  of  Reason, 
they  see  every  danger  from  its  neglect  and  abuse. 

Finally,  they  feel  a  solemn  and  awful  responsi- 
bility, resting  upon  every  individual  soul,  to  decide 
for  itself,  according  to  its  best  light,  what  it  shall  be- 
lieve and  do.  The  interest  here  is  personal,  not 
social.  Human  authority  is  not  admissible.  Calvin 
cannot  decide,  Arminius  cannot  decide,  for  me ;  I 
must  decide  for  myself.  God  has  put  it  upon  me, 
and  I  cannot,  I  dare  not,  shake  off  the  responsibility. 
It  will  not  do  for  the  Council  of  Nice,  nor  the  Synod 
of  Dort,  nor  the  Assembly  of  Westminster,  to  step  in 
between  me  and  my  Master,  and  determine  for  me 
what  he  taught,  and  what  I  must  receive.  Solemn 
interests  I  have  at  stake.  A  mighty  business  is 
upon  my  hands,  which  cannot  be  done  by  proxy, 
though  popes  and  councils  should  tender  their  aid. 
The  soul,  in  such  high  matters,  must  do  its  own 
work  with  God's  assistance,  not  with  man's  inter- 
ference. My  own  free  mind  is  worth  more  to  me  in 
settling  the  grounds  of  my  duty  and  my  destiny, 
than  the  wisdom  of  the  whole  world  besides,  backed 
by  all  its  great  names,  and  its  vast  authority.  My 
conscience,  my  judgment,  my  reason,  —  these  living 
principles  in  my  soul,  set  there  by  God,  kindled  by 
his  inspiration,  fanned  by  his  spirit,  —  these  hold 
me  accountable  to  him  with  an  adamantine  strength. 
If  through  them  I  have  approved  myself  to  him,  my 
Almighty  Father,  what  are  the  reproofs  of  friends, 


74 


REVELATION    AND    REASON. 


and  the  slanders  of  enemies,  and  the  thunders  of 
councils  and  assemblies  ?  —  The  mere  blast  of  an  ad- 
verse wind,  the  peltings  of  the  outward  storm, — 
they  cannot  touch  the  quiet  peace  of  the  heart. 
But  —  fearful  contrast !  —  if  I  have  from  the  motives 
of  temporal  expediency,  from  the  fear  or  the  favor 
of  man,  wrested  my  conscience,  done  despite  to  the 
good  spirit,  and  embraced  a  creed,  or  led  a  life,  which 
is  condemned  by  that  mind  God  gave  me  as  a  gov- 
ernor, woe  is  me !  I  am  undone,  the  sweet  approval 
of  the  heart  is  gone.  "  If  our  heart  condemn  us, 
God  is  greater  than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all 
things.  Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  us  not,  then 
have  we  confidence  toward  God." 


DISCOURSE    IV 


THE  FAITH  ONCE  DELIVERED  TO  THE  SAINTS/ 

FOR  THEKE  18  ONE  GOD,  AND  ONE  MEDIATOR  BETWEEN  GOD  AND 
MEN,  THE  MAN  CHRI8T  JESUS. —  1  Tim.  ii.  5. 

My  Christian  Friends  and  Brethren:  — 

The  work  of  erecting  a  house  of  public  worship 
has  been  completed,  and  you  have  now  assembled  to 
dedicate  it  as  a  holy  offering  to  Almighty  God.  To 
you  this  must  be  a  joyful  occasion,  for  your  laudable 
wishes  have  been  accomplished  under  a  gracious 
Providence,  and  your  sacrifice  is  ready  to  be  offered. 
You  have  now  come  to  hallow  these  walls  for  the 
first  time  —  may  the  last  be  far  distant!  —  with  de- 
vout meditation,  prayer,  and  thanksgiving  to  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ.  You  would,  in  accordance  with  the  ancient 
example,  "  keep  the  dedication  of  this  house  of  God 
with  joy."  "  You  enter  into  his  gates  with  thanks- 
giving, and  into  his  courts  with  praise." 

And  here  let  us  consider  for  a  few  moments,  why 

*  A  Discourse  delivered  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  Windsor,  Vermont,  December  9, 1846. 


76      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

a  joyful  and  a  grateful  spirit  should  fill  the  heart  on 
this  day.  Why  have  you  laid  these  foundations,  and 
reared  these  walls,  and  garnished  them  with  beauty  ? 
We  answer,  for  the  most  glorious  object  in  the  uni- 
verse ;  for  the  solemn  worship  of  the  Infinite  Creator, 
for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  conver- 
sion of  sinners,  the  culture  of  the  spiritual  life,  the 
salvation  of  immortal  souls.  The  world  knows 
nothing  so  great  as  these  ends.  There  are  splendid 
edifices  upon  the  earth,  —  the  mighty  pyramid,  the 
colossal  amphitheatre,  the  magnificent  pagoda,  the 
golden  palaces  of  kingdoms,  the  massive  fortresses 
of  war,  the  brilliant  galleries  of  art,  the  proud  gates 
of  cities,  the  storied  columns  of  victory,  the  marble 
monuments  of  the  dead,  which  the  daily  sun  looks 
down  upon,  as  he  turns  his  glory  upon  the  succes- 
sive countries  of  the  rolling  globe ;  but  we  hesitate 
not  to  say,  that  he  beholds  no  structure,  built  with 
human  hands,  devoted  to  so  high  a  purpose  as  the 
humblest  Christian  sanctuary.  There  may  be  no 
pillars  of  porphyry  or  gilded  tapestry  for  the  outward 
adorning,  but  there  is  the  purer  glory  of  a  heavenly 
consecration  and  a  godlike  use  overshadowing  its 
lowly  walls.  The  cloud  of  the  Divine  Presence  hovers 
over  it.  It  is  irradiated  with  light  from  the  heaven 
of  heavens.  It  is  as  the  ladder,  seen  in  the  vision  of 
old,  whose  top  reached  to  heaven,  whereon  angels 
were  ascending  and  descending,  and  an  alliance  was 
kept  up  with  the  skies.  It  is  as  the  antechamber  to 
the  spiritual  world,  where  man  comes  to  humble  him- 


THE  FAITH  ONCE  DELIVERED  TO  THE  SAINTS.  77 

self  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God,  and  plead  the 
promises  of  his  everlasting  covenant.  "  How  dread- 
ful is  this  place !  this  is  none  other  but  the  house  of 
God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven." 

But  after  speaking  thus  in  general  of  the  high  and 
holy  object  to  which  this  house  of  Christian  worship 
is  devoted,  it  is  natural  and  proper,  on  an  occasion 
which  brings  together  so  many  friends  and  strangers, 
who  take  a  deep  interest  in  your  welfare,  and  inquire 
after  your  ways,  that  you  should  desire  some  more 
particular  statement  of  the  faith  as  held  by  Unita- 
rian Christians.  To  some  it  may  be  unknown  and 
new,  and  to  others  odious,  and  odious  because  un- 
known. To  those  to  whom  it  is  dear,  its  discussion 
will  be  welcome.  To  those  'who  are  anxiously  in- 
quiring for  the  way  of  truth,  to  speak  of  it  may  be 
timely  and  profitable,  and,  we  would  hope,  to  all  not 
without  interest.  For  if  we  feel  ourselves  to  be 
grounded  in  the  truth,  we  shall  not  fear  lest  the  weak- 
ness of  others'  errors  will  overcome  the  strength  of 
our  truth.  God  grant  both  to  speaker  and  hearer  the 
spirit  of  truth,  candor,  and  charity  ! 

To  begin  with  the  foundation  doctrine  of  a  Great 
First  Cause  of  all  things  :  as  Unitarian  Christians, 
we  believe,  in  the  language  of  the  text,  in  "  one 
God,"  and  in  only  one.  "  The  first  of  all  the  com- 
mandments," said  Christ,  "is.  Hear,  O  Israel:  The 
Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord."  We  contend  that  by 
one  God  is  as  strictly  meant  one  being,  as,  when  a 
man  is  spoken  of,  one  being,  and  only  one,  is  under- 

7» 


78      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

stood,  and  not  two  persons,  or  three  in  one.  The 
use  of  the  personal  pronouns  in  the  Scriptures  de- 
monstrates this  position.  The  Jews  walked  in  the 
light  of  revelation,  and  never  worshipped,  and  do  not 
to  this  day,  more  than  one  God.  Only  one  God, 
supreme  and  indivisible,  is  revealed  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, and,  as  we  believe,  only  one  in  the  New. 
Nature  knows  but  one  Creator,  Providence  but  one 
Guide,  and  the  soul  but  one  object  of  the  highest 
adoration.  It  is  the  bane  of  idolatry,  that  it  leads 
men  to  worship  gods  many,  and  lords  many ;  and 
it  is  a  fearful  injury  to  the  pure  religion  of  Jesus  to 
present  to  the  worshipper  more  than  one  God  to  be 
adored,  and  from  whom  we  supplicate  spiritual  fa- 
vors. For  if  we  address  two  or  three  persons  or 
natures  or  distinctions  in  the  Godhead,  we  must 
have  two  or  three  separate  beings  in  our  mind  at  the 
same  time,  and  thus  be  distracted  in  our  attention, 
while  our  thoughts  are  flitting  from  one  to  another ; 
for  it  is  an  impossibility  to  regard  three  as  literally 
one,  or  one  as  three.  Happily,  however,  these  diffi- 
culties do  not  often  occur,  so  much  stronger  is  the 
word  of  God  than  human  traditions  and  theories,  for 
we  seldom  hear  even  from  Trinitarians  themselves 
any  prayers  except  those  directed  to  the  Father  Su- 
preme, and  we  would  only  ask  that  what  is  disused 
in  practice  might  also  be  stricken  from  the  creed. 

But  not  to  dwell  longer  on  this  tenet  of  the  abso- 
lute oneness  of  God,  which-  gives  the  name  of  Unita- 
rian to  our  body,  we  pass  to  another  point  in  our 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      79 

belief,  which  we  would  fain  bring  out  into  clearer 
view  than  has  been  done  in  past  ages  of  the  Church. 
What  adds  an  immeasurable  interest  to  our  faith  in 
one  God  is  not  so  much  the  revelation  of  what  are 
called  by  theologians  his  natural  attributes,  as  his 
unity,  omnipresence,  and  omniscience,  —  though  that 
is  much,  —  as  of  his  moral  character,  most  impres- 
sively condensed  in  those  words  which  our  Saviour 
so  often  used,  "  Our  Father."  The  one  God  is  our 
Parent.  What  a  word,  if  we  will  think  of  it,  is  here  I 
In  our  familiarity  with  it,  we  do  not  perceive  its 
strange  beauty,  its  infinite  tenderness.  God,  our 
Father!  the  humble  word  of  time  and  earthly  re- 
lationship, the  household  title,  the  ejideared  name 
of  home,  lifted  up  on  high  and  applied  to  Him  who 
is  the  Infinite  King  of  the  Universe,  the  Mighty 
Maker  and  Head  of  worlds  and  systems  and  beings 
without  number  or  bound  !  What  kindness  is  here, 
and  what  knowledge  of  human  wants  !  Could  there 
have  been  a  more  comforting,  enlightening,  strength- 
ening, cheering  revelation  out  of  the  depths  of  in- 
finity and  eternity,  than  this  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  ?  Was  it  not  the  very  last  blessing  which  Heav- 
en even  in  its  inexhaustible  riches  could  bestow,  to 
whisper  in  the  ear  of  the  tempted,  stricken  child  of 
mortality,  "  Thy  Father  in  heaven  "  ?  In  heaven, 
and  yet  thy  Father !  So  high,  so  pure  over  all,  and 
yet  setting  his  love  upon  the  feeble  creature  of  the 
earth,  caring  for  him  with  an  infinite  wisdom,  and 
pitying  and  pardoning  him  with  an  everlasting  mer- 


80      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.       '' 

cy !  There  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
crown  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  the  essence  of 
Christianity.  When  men  come  around  us  with  their 
dark  doctrines,  that  seem  almost  to  forbid  the  sun 
rising  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  the  rain  de- 
scending on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust,  we  ask  no 
stronger  refutation  than  this,  —  "  Our  Father,  who 
art  in  heaven."  When  our  friends  are  few,  and  our 
days  evil,  and  our  hearts  fail  us,  we  will  open  the 
blessed  volume  of  inspiration,  and  seeing  there  these 
all-illuminating,  all-cheering  words.  Our  Father,  all 
shall  be  well  again.  This  shall  be  our  light,  our 
cordial,  our  anchor  of  eternal  hope.  Blessed  be  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ! 

In  connection  with  this  doctrine  of  the  fatherly 
character  of  God,  and  as  a  consequence  from  it,  we 
believe  in,  and  with  all  earnestness  would  proclaim, 
the  Brotherhood  of  man  with  man,  without  excep- 
tion of  color,  condition,  or  country.  God  is  our 
Father ;  therefore  man,  his  creature  and  the  child  of 
his  love,  is  our  brother.  These  terms  father  and 
brother  are  figurative,  taken  from  our  earthly  rela- 
tionship, and  therefore  imperfect  in  a  degree.  For 
God  is  more  than  father,  man  is  more  than  brother. 
In  both  cases,  the  tie  is  spiritual  and  immortal.  It 
relates  not  to  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
born,  as  do  these  bonds  of  kindred,  but  to  the  very 
essence  of  our  being  as  moral  and  spiritual  creatures. 
This  great  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  is  the  key- 
stone to  Christian  morality,  as  the  doctrine  of  God 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.     81 

our  Father  is  to  Christian  piety.  In  obedience  to  it, 
all  wars  should  for  ever  cease,  all  slavery  be  over- 
thrown, all  empty  distinctions  exploded,  all  dissen- 
sions in  the  Church  be  pacified,  and  everywhere  man 
love,  sympathize  with,  and  labor  for  man  as  a  broth- 
er. Haste,  O,  haste  the  happy  time,  when  such  shall 
be  the  state  of  the  world  ! 

In  the  next  place,  we  would  emphasize  our  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Saviour.  Though  often  accused 
of  denying  the  Lord  that  bought  us,  and  making  the 
cross  of  none  effect,  we  nevertheless  cherish  this  faith 
of  salvation  from  our  sins  in  the  name  and  through 
the  mediation  of  Christ  as  the  chief  thing  of  life,  the 
highest  manifestation  of  the  paternal  interest  of  God 
in  mankind.  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 
We  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  not  as  God  the  Son,  for 
we  find  no  such  words  between  the  lids  of  the  Bible, 
though  they  often  may  be  found  in  human  works, 
but  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  the 
Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  Intercessor  with 
the  Father.  His  life  was  without  spot  or  blemish  of 
sin  ;  his  example  of  all  he  taught,  perfect ;  his  teach- 
ings, the  truth;  his  labors,  love;  and  his  death,  in- 
stinct with  a  mighty  efficacy  to  reconcile,  not  God 
to  man,  but  man  to  God,  and  to  draw  earth  within 
the  circle  of  heaven.  We  cannot  admit  that  Christ 
was  literally  God,  or  equal  with  the  Almighty ;  for 
he  said,  "  My  Father  is  greater  than  I " ;    and  at 


82     THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVEREIi    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

another  time,  "  But  of  that  day  and  that  hour  know- 
eth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  which  are  in  heaven, 
neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father."  And  when  he  said 
at  another  time,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one,"  he  else- 
where explains  what  he  meant  by  that  oneness,  for 
he  prayed  that  his  disciples  "  might  be  one,  even  as 
we  are  one."  It  was  not  therefore  identity  of  nature, 
but  union  of  affection,  will,  and  effort.  We  cannot 
add  a  second  and  third  being  to  the  Divine  Unity, 
nor  can  we  divide  Christ  into  two  beings  or  natures, 
one  finite  and  the  other  infinite,  one  human  and  the 
other  divine,  because  we  cannot  find  any  authority 
for  it  in  the  Scriptures.  The  same  text  that  says 
God  is  one,  also  declares  that  the  Mediator  is  one. 
"  For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  Mediator  between 
God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus."  We  cannot 
discern  a  single  intimation  of  the  twofold  nature  of 
Jesus,  either  in  his  own  teachings,  or  those  of  his 
Apostles,  or  in  the  Christian  faith  of  the  first  two 
centuries  of  our  era ;  and  we  are  constrained  there- 
fore to  regard  it  as  a  mere  unauthorized  inference 
from  certain  texts,  a  pure  theological  fiction,  to  ex- 
plain the  difficulties  of  the  Trinity.  Christ  may 
have  applied  to  him  both  terms,  God  and  man,  in  a 
figurative  sense,  but  literally  he  was  neither  one  nor 
the  other,  neither  "  very  God "  nor  "  mere  man," 
but  an  exalted  being  midway  between  the  two,  or,  as 
the  record  says,  a  Mediator.  He  is  like  no  other,  and 
has  neither  predecessor  nor  successor.  As  there  is 
but  one  God,  so  there  is,  there  will  be,  there  needs 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      83 

to  be,  but  one  Christ.  He  is  his  own,  and  not  an- 
other's, the  first-born  of  a  new  moral  creation,  the 
second  Adam  to  lead  on  the  generations  of  a  new 
spiritual  race.  Human  classifications  are  at  fault. 
A  new  being  has  appeared  upon  the  earth.  We  be- 
lieve, indeed,  most  firmly  in  the  divinily  of  Christ, 
namely,  that  the  spirit  was  given  him  not  by  meas- 
ure, and  that  he  was  created,  authorized,  and  sent 
on  a  divine  mission  to  save  the  world  ;  but  we  reject 
his  deily^  that  is,  that  he  is  the  second  person  in  the 
Godhead,  "  equal  in  power  and  glory "  with  the 
Supreme  Father ;  not  because  it  is  a  mystery,  for 
there  are  many  mysteries  connected  with  religion, 
as  there  are  many  in  nature  and  providence;  but 
because  it  is  an  absurdity,  and  a  palpable  contradic- 
tion in  terms. 

As  it  regards  our  views  of  Salvation,  we  hold  that 
Jesus  Christ  saves  mankind  from  sin  by  working  a 
moral  change  in  their  hearts,  and  making  them  bet- 
ter, holier,  spiritually-minded  ;  not  that  he  can  save 
a  single  soul  in  its  sins,  by  presenting  himself  as  a 
substitute  to  avert  the  doom  of  the  transgressor,  and 
by  suffering  in  his  own  person  in  the  garden  and  on 
the  cross  all  the  mountains  of  miseries  and  agonies 
which  would  otherwise  have  fallen  upon  the  millions 
of  millions  of  guilty  beings  for  having  broken  the 
laws  of  their  Maker.  His  mission  was  not  a  piece 
of  diplomacy,  contrived  in  the  cabinet  of  Heaven,  to 
clear  the  wicked  by  punishing  the  innocent,  but  a 
breathing  forth  of  the  love  of  God,  an  expression  of 


84  THE  FAITH  ONCE  DELIVERED  TO  THE  SAINTS. 

his  interest  and  mercy,  an  instrumentality  to  work  a 
change,  not  above,  but  below, — not  in  the  Divine 
purposes,  but  in  human  life,  —  to  effect  the  regener- 
ation and  sanctification  of  souls  lost  in  sin.  He 
preached  repentance,  and,  by  a  necessary  conse- 
quence, remission  of  sins ;  for  God  is  both  ^^  faithful 
and  just^  as  well  as  merciful,  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  He 
represented  the  difficulty  as  not  on  the  part  of  God, 
who  is,  and  ever  was,  ready  to  have  mercy  on  the 
returning  prodigal,  but  on  the  part  of  man,  who  is 
slow  to  feel  his  sins  as  sins,  to  be  sorry  for  them,  and 
to  forsake  them.  Jesus  came  not,  therefore,  to  soften 
God's  law,  which  is  ever  the  same,  but  man's  heart, 
which  may  be  changed.  He  taught,  entreated,  lived, 
died,  that  men  might  listen  as  never  before  to  truth 
and  duty,  —  that  their  whole  nature  might  be  sancti- 
fied to  God,  and  every  thought  be  brought  into  obe- 
dience, —  that  the  will  might  bow  to  the  supreme 
will,  —  that  reason  and  conscience  might  become  to 
man  as  the  veritable  voices  of  his  Maker,  —  that  the 
two  great  moral  affections,  connecting  man  to  man 
in  benevolence,  and  man  to  God  in  piety,  might  be 
quickened  into  living  exercise,  —  and  that  the  pure 
spiritual  aspirations,  faith  and  hope,  might  take  hold 
of  the  immortality  opened  before  them,  —  and  that 
thus,  altogether,  m,an,  instead  of  bowing  himself 
down  and  burying  himself  in  the  narrow,  selfish,  sen- 
sual interests  bounded  by  the  flesh  and  time,  might 
take  into  view  the  glorious  range  of  a  never-ending 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      85 

state  of  being  beyond  the  grave,  and  live  to  virtue, 
heaven,  God.  Hence  his  lessons  come  to  us,  when 
we  are  ourselves,  as  a  ray  of  light  to  the  bewildered 
traveller,  as  a  draught  from  the  cold  spring  to  a 
thirsty  soul,  as  the  tear  of  sympathy  to  the  friendless 
sufferer.  Nothing  has  ever  been  so  beautiful  as  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  nor  so  pathetic  as  the  parable 
of  the  prodigal  son,  nor  so  solemn  as  the  judgment 
scene,  nor  so  searching  as  the  condemnation  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees.  Let  them  that  have  ears 
hear,  and  let  them  that  have  eyes  read,  and  let  them 
that  have  hearts  feel,  these  divine  discourses  of  the 
Gospel,  until  they  shall  penetrate  through  the  com- 
mon crust  of  moral  insensibility  and  worldliness,  and 
reach  with  a  healing  power  the  last  recesses  of  the 
soul. 

Again :  we  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  frequent- 
ly mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  not  as  a  dis- 
tinct person,  being,  or  even  distinction  of  the  God- 
head, but  as  that  Godhead  itself,  God  himself,  the 
Father,  the  Great  and  Good  Spirit,  in  action,  giving 
Christ  his  power  and  wisdom,  enabling  the  Apostles 
to  work  miracles,  ever  guiding,  blessing,  and  saving 
all,  spreading  light  and  love  in  boundless  tides  over 
the  moral  creation,  and  at  all  times  and  in  all  places, 
would  we  but  be  sensible  to  it,  gently  but  powerfully 
striving,  though  with  perfect  consistency  with  human 
freedom,  to  win  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way. 
We  think  there  are  some  who  speak  of  the  spirit  of 
God  too  much,  as  the  ancient  prophet  did,  when  ridi- 


86   THE  FAITH  ONCE  DELIVERED  TO  THE  SAINTS. 

culing  the  heathen  deity  before  the  priests  of  Baal, 
—  "  He  is  pursuing,  or  he  is  on  a  journey,  or  perad- 
venture  he  sleepeth,  and  must  be  awaked."  They 
speak  of  times  and  places,  unmindful  that  the  spirit 
of  God  is  in  all  places  at  all  times,  filling  and  em- 
bosoming all,  and  if  unperceived,  it  is  by  the  dull 
mind,  and  if  unfelt,  it  is  by  the  insensible  heart.  It 
is  the  common  faith  that  God  is  wisely  and  benevo- 
lently working  throughout  the  realms  of  Nature,  the 
material  universe  ;  shall  we  atheistically  exclude  him 
from  the  moral  world,  from  the  kingdom  of  mind, 
thought,  conscience,  affection,  aspiration  ?  No.  We 
rejoice  to  believe  that  he  is  with  the  soul,  helping  its 
infirmities,  and  providing  for  its  wants.  We  would 
not  give  up  this  faith  for  worlds.  It  is  the  encour- 
agement of  prayer.  It  is  the  motive  to  moral  effort. 
It  is  the  blessed  assurance  that  we  are  not  engaged 
single-handed  against  the  principalities  and  powers 
of  evil,  —  the  omnipotence  of  habit,  the  torrent  of 
example,  the  fury  of  the  passions,  the  acquired 
depravity  of  the  heart,  and  the  cares  and  follies  of 
the  world  ;  but  that  we  have  "  a  strong-siding  cham- 
pion," a  divine  helper,  who  will  suffer  no  faithful 
heart  to  fail  in  the  moral  battle,  but  will  bring  us  off 
conquerors  and  more  than  conquerors.  Yes,  one  of 
the  highest  ends  of  Christ's  mission  was  to  direct 
man  to  the  Comforter  and  Sanctifier,  and  to  inspire 
confidence  in  his  heart  of  the  alliance  of  spiritual 
powers  in  his  behalf,  working  around  him  and  with- 
in for  his  redemption. 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      87 

In  regard  to  those  questions  which  have  so  long 
agitated  the  world  under  the  head  of  the  Calvinistic 
and  Arminian  controversies,  we  believe  there  is,  as 
in  the  topics  already  touched  upon,  a  medium  point, 
nearer  the  truth  than  either  side.  The  law  of  human 
opinions  is  in  all  matters  too  much  a  law  of  extremes, 
but  nowhere  more  so  than  in  theology. 

Man  is  depraved,  —  we  cannot  open  our  eyes,  and 
not  see  it,  —  but  not  totally  depraved.  He  is  born 
weak,  not  evil.  He  has  depraved  himself.  God 
"  made  man  upright,  but  they  have  sought  out  many 
inventions."  His  mind  is  not  naturally  in  a  state  of 
sin,  for  sin  is  the  act  of  a  moral  agent,  any  more  than 
his  body  is  naturally  in  a  state  of  disease.  Sickness 
is  contrary  to  nature ;  so  is  sin  the  moral  disorder 
contrary  to  nature.  And  as  we  should  not  take  one 
to  the  lazaretto  or  pest-house  to  exhibit  the  natural 
powers  of  the  physical,  so  we  should  not  seize  on 
crimes  and  vices  as  a  description  of  the  spiritual 
constitution.  All  the  propensities  are  good,  all  the 
appetites  and  passions  were  inserted  for  a  benevo- 
lent purpose,  and  only  when  they  usurp  the  throne  of 
reason  and  conscience,  and  renounce  their  allegiance 
to  God,  do  they  change  from  convenient  servants 
into  terrible  tyrants.  Who  would  wish  or  dare  to 
cross  out  one  God-given  faculty,  were  it  even  one 
that  allied  him  most  to  the  earth  ?  It  were  a  horror 
to  think  of  it.  Man  would  then  lose  his  wonderful 
and  fearful  adaptation  to  two  worlds,  and  would  be 
cast  forth  a  poor,  mutilated  creature.     Let  us  not 


88      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

think  to  improve  upon  the  creative  skill  of  the 
Framer  of  his  body,  any  more  than  upon  that  of  the 
Father  of  his  spirit,  nor  libel  His  work,  nor  make 
Him  the  author  of  shi. 

We  contend  earnestly  for  the  moral  freedom  of 
man,  and  that  he  is  responsible  only  so  far  as  he'  is 
free ;  that  God  has  richly  provided  the  means  and 
motives  of  spiritual  life,  and  it  depends  on  him 
whether  he  will  accept  the  terms.  We  cannot  in- 
deed do  anything,  lift  a  finger,  move  a  step,  with- 
out God ;  but  we  have  as  much  assurance  that 
he  will  help  us,  if  we  help  ourselves,  in  things  spirit- 
ual, as  in  things  material ;  in  cultivating  the  soul,  as 
in  cultivating  our  fields.  If  we  will  not  sow,  we 
shall  not  reap,  is  not  more  true  in  the  earthly  than 
in  the  Divine  husbandry.  In  a  single  word,  the  ob- 
stacle is  wdth  man.  God  has  provided  everything, 
has  made  man  in  his  own  image,  little  lower  than 
the  angels,  crowned  him  with  honor  and  glory,  given 
him  will,  reason,  conscience,  affection,  aspiration,  set 
before  him  the  choice  of  good  and  evil,  life  and 
death  ;  and,  to  crown  all,  he  speaks  audibly  from 
heaven,  and  says,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased  ;  hear  ye  him."  Man  can- 
not change  his  heart  from  sin  to  holiness  without 
God;  so  he  cannot  without  his  cooperation  think 
or  stir.  But  if  he  will  go  to  work  in  good  earnest, 
he  will  soon  find  there  is  a  mighty  power  working 
within  and  around  him,  through  ten  thousand  benefi- 
cent agencies  and  influences,  to  will  and  to  do  of  its 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      89 

good  pleasure.  To  the  seeking,  praying  heart,  all 
nature,  all  providence,  all  grace,  all  heaven  and  earth, 
time  and  eternity,  bring  their  holiest  contributions  of 
light  and  love.  **  All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God."  "  How  shall  we  escape,  if 
we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ?  " 

The  remaining  points  of  belief  are  the  immortal- 
ity of  the  spirit,  and  a  future  state  of  righteous  retri- 
bution, of  suffering  to  the  bad  and  of  happiness  to 
the  good,  as  in  the  present  life,  only  with  greater  cer- 
tainty and  more  exact  correspondence.  Some  assert 
that  a  portion  of  the  human  family  will  be  saved 
hereafter,  but  that  the  greater  part  will  be  sentenced 
to  unchangeable  and  eternal  woe.  Others  assert 
that  all  will  be  saved,  without  respect  of  persons,  or 
distinction  of  moral  character.  These  doctrines  of 
Calvinism  and  Universalism  are  both  plain  and  in- 
telligible, though,  we  contend,  erroneous  extremes. 
We  would  proclaim  a  doctrine,  if  possible,  equally 
plain  and  intelligible,  —  that  it  is  rendered  to  every 
man  in  the  future  world  precisely  according  to  his 
deserts,  or,  as  the  Scriptures  say,  "  according  to  that 
he  hath  done  in  the  flesh,  whether  good  or  bad." 
All  the  good  will  not  enjoy  alike,  —  Lazarus  as  much 
as  Abraham,  —  because  all  are  not  equally  good,  and 
so  are  not  equally  prepared  to  enjoy  God  and  his 
works.  Each  vessel  may,  however,  be  full ;  the  ab- 
solute happiness  may  be  the  same,  though  not  the 
relative,  for  every  vessel  may  not  have  the  same  ca- 
pacity.    On  the  other  hand,  all  the  wicked  may  not 


90      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

suffer  equally,  because  there  are  different  depths  of 
guilt ;  and  surely  the  imperfect  justice  of  human  tri- 
bunals, that  punishes  crimes  according  to  their  tur- 
pitude, must  more  than  be  equalled  by  the  equity  of 
the  Divine.  We  believe  in  a  retribution  of  degrees, 
of  equity,  of  benevolence,  not  of  "  vindictive  jus- 
tice "  ;  and  that  suffering  in  all  worlds  and  all  states 
of  being,  judging  by  the  character  of  God  and  the 
analogy  of  this  life,  and  the  end  of  man's  creation, 
and  by  the  spirit  if  not  the  letter  of  Scripture,  must 
tend  towards  a  final  restoration  to  virtue  and  happi- 
ness. Still,  we  presume  not  to  pry  into  futurity.  It 
becomes  us  to  fear  rather  than  speculate  concerning 
the  future  state  of  the  wicked ;  for  solemn  are  the 
warnings  of  the  sacred  word,  and  fearful  the  glimpses 
it  gives  us  into  the  condition  of  the  impenitent  sin- 
ner. Of  the  continuance  of  future  punishment  we 
are  not  absolutely  informed,  and  we  must  leave  it  in 
the  hands  of  Him  who  will  employ  suffering  as  long 
as  it  is  needed,  and  no  longer.  For  to  predicate  ab- 
solute eternity  of  future  woe  from  the  terms  in  the 
Bible,  everlasting  and  eternal,  and  other  words  of 
like  import,  is  to  overlook  the  analogy  of  faith,  and 
comparison  of  Scripture  with  Scripture ;  for  these 
terms  are  elsewhere  applied  to  things  of  indefinitely 
long  period,  things  not  in  their  nature  unending,  and 
therefore  limited  by  the  connection  in  which  they 
stand,  —  as  the  Jewish  ritual  and  priesthood,  the  pos- 
session of  the  land  of  Canaan  by  the  chosen  people, 
and  other  things  of  a  similar  nature. 


THE    FAITH     ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      91 

I  have  thus  made  a  statement  in  plain  and  general 
language,  not  an  argument,  of  the  faith  of  Unitarian 
Christians.  Many  will  perhaps  differ  from  it  in 
part ;  a  few  may  agree  with  it  entirely.  Agreeing 
or  disagreeing,  may  we  look  at  the  subject  fairly  and 
candidly,  and  make  up  our  minds  as  in  the  sight 
and  fear  of  God.  We  are  not  responsible  for  others, 
but  for  ourselves.  "  To  his  own  master  every  man 
standeth  or  falleth." 

We  believe,  yet  further,  that  our  faith  has  most 
powerful  auxiliaries  to  spread  it,  and  eternal  founda- 
tions to  support  it,  and  therefore  that  it  cannot  be 
overthrown,  though  all  the  powers  and  priesthoods 
on  earth  should  war  against  it,  but  that  in  the  end  it 
will  leaven  Christendom. 

For  we  appeal  to  the  Bible,  both  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  against  creeds,  confessions,  traditions, 
customs,  however  ancient  or  authorized  by  man. 
We  say,  "  To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony,"  not  in 
the  mere  "  letter  which  killeth,  but  in  the  spirit  which 
giveth  life." 

We  appeal  to  conscience,  the  moral  sense  in  man 
of  right  and  wrong,  the  echo  of  the  Divinity ;  and 
we  are  certain  that  it  is  the  ally  of  a  just  theology, 
of  equitable  views  of  God's  character  and  attributes, 
of  accountableness,  sin,  and  punishment. 

We  appeal  to  reason,  twin-sister  of  conscience, 
not  as  in  rivalry  of  the  Scriptures,  but  in  beautiful 
harmony  therewith  ;  and  we  feel  and  know,  by  good 
experience,  that,  in  the  unprejudiced,  unsophisticated 


92      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

common-sense  of  mankind,  our  doctrines  will  gain 
an  immovable  hold.  "We  do  not  hold  to  reason 
above  revelation,  but  to  revelation  interpreted,  the 
only  way  it  can  be,  by  reason. 

We  appeal  to  the  affections  and  aspirations  of  the 
heart,  and  we  find  these  to  be  our  allies ;  in  poetic 
words,  — 

"  And  exultations  and  agonies 
And  love,  and  man's  unconquerable  mind," 

which  yearn  after  a  higher  state  of  the  soul,  a  purer 
condition  of  society,  and  the  perfect  reign  on  earth, 
as  in  heaven,  of  "  liberty,  holiness,  love." 

We  appeal  to  the  grand  principles  of  Protestant- 
ism, to  which  half  the  Protestant  world  have  proved 
false,  the  Bible  as  the  standard  of  faith  and  practice, 
and  the'  right  and  duty  of  private  judgment  in  these 
high  matters,  independently  of  popes  and  presbyter- 
ies, assemblies  and  alliances. 

We  appeal  to  the  spirit  of  our  own  free  institu- 
tions and  republican  government,  which  proclaim 
the  equality  of  man  with  man  in  his  rights  and  du- 
ties, and  which  is  opposed  to  church  governments 
founded  on  the  monarchical  and  aristocratic  princi- 
ples of  the  old  countries,  —  the  bishoprics,  the  coun- 
cils, the  synods,  the  power  of  one  or  a  few  over  the 
many,  — but  which  gives  toleration  to  every  sect  and 
denomination.  The  great  ideas  of  American  free- 
dom are  identical  with  the  principles  of  New  Eng- 
land Congregationalism,  fairly  carried  out,  and  in 
fact  they  thence  caught  that  electric  spark  which  has 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      93 

vivified  the  world,  and  made  liberty  a  watchword 
among  the  nations. 

We  appeal,  in  fine,  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  which 
is  in  league,  we  believe,  with  a  more  earnest  practi- 
cal faith,  with  a  more  resolute  religious  spirit,  a 
more  sober,  real,  living,  every-day  piety  and  morality, 
cleared  from  the  mists  and  speculations  and  tra- 
ditions of  dark  and  distant  ages,  and  in  harmony 
with  the  progress  of  society,  the  advance  of  science, 
the  triumphs  of  the  arts,  the  spread  of  popular  insti- 
tutions, the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge,  the  uni- 
versal education  of  the  people,  and  the  glorious 
movements  of  modern  reformation  against  the  hoary 
vices  of  the  past,  —  idolatry,  ignorance,  cruelty,  slav- 
ery, war,  licentiousness,  and  intemperance.  To  all 
these,  and  to  more  and  mightier  allies,  to  the  Father 
of  spirits  and  to  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  who  ever 
liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us,  we  appeal  for  the 
truth  of  our  views,  and  for  their  saving  power  and 
spread  in  the  world.  If  they  are  not  the  truths  of 
revelation,  they  will  and  they  ought  to  go  down. 
But  if,  as  we  must  solemnly  believe,  they  are  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  his  Apos- 
tles, they  will  live,  and  not  die.  They  will  win  their 
way  over  all  obstacles,  and  gain  the  heart  of  the 
world.     The  truth  is  mighty,  and  it  will  prevail. 

Take  courage,  therefore,  brethren,  in  your  under- 
taking. Be  of  good  cheer.  Be  active  in  these  infi- 
nite concerns.  Be  wide  awake  to  your  spiritual  and 
eternal  interests.     Labor,  pray,  confer  together.    Kin- 


94      THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS. 

die  up  a  pure  flame  of  brotherly  love  and  heartfelt 
devotion  in  your  own  hearts,  and  in  the  hearts  of 
your  fellow-men  around.  Believe,  hope,  persevere 
unto  the  end,  and  you  cannot  fail  of  great  and  good 
results.  In  due  season  you  shall  reap,  if  you  faint 
not. 

To  this  faith,  then,  "  once  delivered  to  the  saints," 
this  faith  of  the  Scriptures,  of  reason,  of  conscience, 
of  fervent  affections  and  high  aspirations ;  to  this 
faith  of  Protestantism,  of  freedom,  and  of  progress ; 
to  one  God,  the  Father,  and  to  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Saviour,  and  to  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God ;  to  the  reading  of  the  sacred  volume  ;  to  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  and  him  crucified  ;  to  the  songs 
of  praise,  and  devout  meditations,  and  penitence  and 
prayer ;  to  the  observance  of  the  Christian  ordinances 
of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  joys  of 
Christian  communion  and  conference,  —  we  would 
dedicate  these  now  hallowed  courts.  We  would  con- 
secrate the  pulpit  for  the  faithful  and  heart-searching 
and  soul-moving  administration  of  the  Divine  Word, 
—  the  pews  for  the  attentive  hearing  and  devout  re- 
flections and  resolutions  of  the  worshippers,  —  the 
choir  for  the  solemn  strains  of  sacred  melody, — 
the  doors  for  the  entrance  of  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  young  and  old,  pressing  to  the  altar  of 
God  and  the  feet  of  Jesus,  —  the  walls  to  resound 
with  the  songs  and  exhortations  of  the  holy  day. 
Here  may  the  children  be  welcomed  to  the  Sabbath 
school,  and  taught  by  faithful  and  affectionate  teach- 


THE    FAITH    ONCE    DELIVERED    TO    THE    SAINTS.      95 

ers  the  beautiful  precepts  and  promises  of  their  Sav- 
iour. Here  may  the  mourner  come  and  find  com- 
fort, the  sinner  be  warned  and  rescued,  and  all  guided 
and  cheered  on  in  the  way  everlasting.  Here  may 
many  souls  be  born  out  of  the  low  earthly  mind  into 
the  high  spiritual  life,  and  be  prepared  to  enter  into 
the  inheritance  of  heaven.  Here  may  you  become 
better  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children, 
brothers  and  sisters ;  better  citizens  in  your  town, 
better  patriots  to  your  country,  and  better  philanthro- 
pists to  your  race.  And  may  the  outward  institu- 
tions of  religion,  generously  and  faithfully  supported 
by  your  people,  result  in  inward  sanctification  and 
heavenly-mindedness,  so  that  when  these  walls  shall 
fall  into  ruins,  it  may  be  found  that  you  not  only 
dedicated  this  temple,  built  with  hands,  to  the  Most 
High,  but  that  you  also  dedicated  yourselves  as  the 
living  temples  for  the  residence  of  his  indwelling 
spirit ;  so  that  you  shall  all  at  last  —  not  one  fam- 
ily broken,  not  one  wanderer  lost — enter  into  that 
higher  sanctuary,  eternal  in  the  heavens,  and  perform 
that  nobler  worship,  ascribing  "  blessing  and  honor 
and  glory  and  power  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon 
the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb,  for  ever  and  ever." 
Amen. 


DISCOURSE    V 


THE  LETTER  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 

NOT  OP  THE  LETTER,  BUT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  ;  FOR  THE  LETTER 

KiLLETH,  BUT  THE  SPIRIT  GiVETH  LIFE.  —  2  Corinthians  iii.  6. 

There  are  two  methods  of  interpreting  the  word 
of  God;  —  one  of  the  letter,  the  other  of  the  spirit; 
one  literal  and  verbal,  the  other  liberal.  One  makes 
much  of  the  words  or  forms  in  which  an  idea  is 
conveyed,  and  insists  upon  a  rigid  construction  of 
the  language.  The  other  passes  within  the  out- 
works which  surround,  or  the  illustrations  which 
beautify,  to  grasp  the  central  thought  itself,  account- 
ing expressions  as  of  little  consequence  in  them- 
selves, and  as  only  valuable  for  the  sense  they  con- 
vey ;  since  it  is  the  gem  gives  value  to  the  casket, 
not  the  casket  to  the  gem.  One  is  chiefly  concerned 
with  the  grammar  and  lexicon,  and  is  anxious  about 
the  cases  of  nouns,  and  the  modes  and  tenses  of 
verbs,  while  the  other  aims  at  the  mind  of  the  au- 
thor, and  from  that  stand-point  would  read  his  lan- 
guage and  interpret  his  sentiments.  One  admits 
only  what   is    expressly  written,  the   other   allows 


THE    LETTER   AND    THE    SPIRIT.  97 

much  room  for  what  is  implied  or  understood,  but  is 
not  directly  expressed.  One  is  fearful  of  going  too 
far,  the  other  of  falling  short.  One  inclines  more  to 
the  explicit  precepts  and  positive  rules  ;  the  other 
seeks  to  penetrate  the  profound  depth  of  truth,  and 
catch  its  rare,  ethereal  essence.  The  method  of  lit- 
eral interpretation  leads  in  its  extremes,  strange  as  it 
may  appear,  to  the  divergent  errors  of  Catholicism 
and  Calvinism  ;  while  the  free  construction,  allowed 
too  much  scope,  leaves  us  only  the  thin  abstractions 
of  Neology  and  Pantheism,  or  with  its  correspon- 
dencies and  celestial  senses  mystifies  us  with  the 
flights  of  Spiritualism. 

If  however  we  must  range  ourselves  on  the  one 
or  the  other  side,  if  we  must  be  either  Literalists  or 
Liberals  and  Spiritualists,  we  should  not  hesitate 
long  between  the  two.  For  the  errors  of  one  class 
arise  from  the  very  principles  with  which  they  set 
out ;  the  errors  of  the  other  arise,  not  from  their  prin- 
ciples, but  from  the  perversion  and  misapplication  of 
their  principles.  If  we  must  be  either  of  the  letter 
or  of  the  spirit,  we  should  rank  ourselves  on  the  side 
of  the  spirit,  for  the  reason  given  in  the  text ;  in 
other  words,  because  by  a  rigid,  liberal,  verbal  under- 
standing of  the  Scriptures  their  genuine  life  is  de- 
stroyed, while  by  a  free,  liberal,  popular  construction, 
you  seize  their  life-giving  spirit,  and  arrive  at  the 
mind  of  the  author. 

The  importance  of  the  alternative  now  proposed 
has   never   received  sufficient  attention,  either  from 


98  THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 

learned  or  unlearned  readers  of  the  Bible.  It  scarce- 
ly seems  to  have  been  observed,  that  the  undue 
weight  given  to  the  one  or  the  other  side  of  this 
question  has  been  the  grand,  prolific  source  of  the 
errors  and  absurdities  in  Christian  theology.  Hard- 
ly any  step  could  be  taken  more  conducive  to  the 
cause  of  both  truth  and  union,  than  the  establishment 
of  just  principles  of  Biblical  interpretation,  and  their 
steady  and  consistent  application  by  every  class  of 
Christian  believers. 

The  merits  of  this  subject  will  however  be  better 
understood  by  immediately  turning  to  some  well- 
known  cases,  where  the  two  methods  indicated  are 
brought  into  use. 

In  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  our 
Lord  says  to  the  Jews,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man,  and 
drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you."  He  repeats 
the  same  language  several  times  in  the  course  of  the 
chapter,  as  if  it  were  of  the  greatest  consequence. 

Proceeding  on  the  verbal  method,  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  Christian  Church  in  all  ages  has  held  lit- 
erally to  these  words  and  phrases,  and  believed  that 
no  man  could  have  spiritual  life  in  himself,  unless 
he  eat  the  flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of 
man,  or,  what  is  deemed  equivalent,  partake  of  the 
elements  of  bread  and  wine,  which,  after  their  conse- 
cration by  the  priest,  are  regarded  as  the  literal  flesh 
and  blood  of  the  Saviour !  And  to  carry  out  in 
practice  this  idea  to  its  utmost  limits,  the  cup  was 


THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT.  99 

not  distributed  among  the  lay  communicants  of  the 
Church,  as  we  should  have  naturally  inferred  from 
the  strict  and  literal  System ;  but  to  exhibit  a  still 
higher  refinement  of  the  theory  adopted,  it  was  de- 
nied on  the  ground  that,  as  the  flesh  contains  the 
blood,  so  the  bread  when  consecrated  imbibed  the 
efficacy  of  both  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ,  and 
it  was  therefore  superfluous  to  partake  of  the  cup ! 
This  and  kindred  errors  in  relation  to  the  Lord's 
Supper  infect,  not  only  the  Church  of  Rome,  but 
large  portions  of  the  Protestant  world,  and  appear  at 
this  moment  to  be  gaining  ground. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  liberal  interpreters  deny 
that  any  of  the  above  inferences  are  to  be  drawn 
from  our  Lord's  words  in  question.  No  reference  is 
probably  made  in  that  chapter  to  the  ordinance  after- 
wards instituted.  Jesus  had  just  before  fed  the  five 
thousand  with  a  miraculous  increase  of  loaves  and 
fishes.  This  leads  to  the  vivid  imagery  quoted.  He 
charges  the  multitude  with  selfish  motives  in  follow- 
ing him,  and  exhorts  them  to  labor  for  "  the  meat 
which  endureth  unto  everlasting  life."  He  then  calls 
himself  by  a  strong  figure  the  bread  of  life,  and  says 
they  must  eat  this  spiritual  bread.  Some  said  it 
was  a  hard  saying,  and  many  have  felt  the  same 
since,  because  they  understand  the  language  liter- 
ally. But  our  Lord  explaineth  himself  soon  after. 
"  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing :  the  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  arc 
spirit,  and  they  are  life."     As  much  as  to  say.  The 


100 


THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 


saving,  life-giving  power  of  which  I  speak  resides 
not  in  my  flesh  literally,  but  in  my  words  and  spirit. 
They  are  instinct  with  vital  energy.  How  much 
stronger  and  nobler  an  idea  is  yielded  by  the  free 
and  figurative,  than  by  the  literal  method!  How 
much  more  agreeable  to  "  the  analogy  of  faith,"  to 
the  harmony  of  truth,  to  the  whole  circle  of  Christ's 
teaching  of  which  this  is  one  arc,  to  understand,  that 
he  gives  us  his  doctrine,  his  moral  and  spiritual  life, 
to  feed  our  life,  than  that  he  imparts  his  flesh  and 
blood  in  any  literal  or  material  sense  whatsoever  I 

Many  are  ready  to  say,  that,  if  you  do  not  adopt 
the  most  literal  signification  of  a  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture, you  explain  it  away.  But  the  charge  is  wholly 
misplaced,  the  fact  is  directly  the  reverse.  You  ex- 
plain away  the  sense  of  any  book,  when  you  rest  on 
its  apparent,  verbal  import,  instead  of  descending  into 
its  interior  idea.  Because  we  assert  that  this  or  that 
text  of  Scripture  is  figurative,  we  by  no  means  say 
that  it  means  little,  or  means  nothing,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  that  it  is  all  the  more  full  of  thought  and 
life  on  that  very  account.  For  the  very  fact,  that 
there  is  something  more  than  a  bare  statement  of 
truth  in  a  commonplace  way,  attests  to  the  warm 
and  aroused  mind  of  the  speaker  or  writer,  which 
could  not  be  satisfied  with  tame  and  prosaic  words, 
but  indulged  in  the  most  natural  way  in  signs,  pic- 
tures, figures,  as  embodiments  of  thought,  and  struck 
off  from  the  glowing  anvil  of  meditation  a  thousand 
brilliant  sparks  in  every  direction. 


THE    LETTER   AND    THE    SPIRIT.  101 

The  Jews  took  Jesus  literally  when  he  said,  "  De- 
stroy this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it 
up  " ;  and  they  said,  "  Forty  and  six  years  was  this 
temple  in  building,  and  wilt  thou  rear  it  up  in  three 
days  ?  "  But  he  spoke  of  the  temple  of  his  body. 
They  explained  away  the  sublime  idea  of  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  and  substituted  in  its  place 
the  literal,  limited  conception  of  prostrating  the  mar- 
ble and  the  mortar  of  the  edifice,  and  raising  it  up 
again  to  its  former  estate.  So  it  is  uniformly.  The 
verbal  sense  is  always  the  least  sense,  the  feeblest, 
most  frigid  thought;  the  spiritual  sense,  the  most 
living  and  profound.  The  letter  killeth,  but  the 
spirit  giveth  life. 

Incalculable  injury  has  been  done  to  the  Bible  by 
wresting  its  free  and  popular  language,  its  graceful, 
figurative  phrases,  to  suit  a  rigid,  stiff  literalness. 
Such  treatment  would  have  been  the  ruin  of  any 
other  work,  less  potent  than  the  oracles  of  divine 
truth.  They  have  survived  the  perversion  only  be- 
cause the  light  that  is  in  them  cannot  be  wholly  put 
out,  though  all  the  clouds  and  mists  of  human  tradi- 
tion and  false  philosophy  gather  about  them,  for 
they  shine  with  an  independent  and  inextinguishable 
radiance  of  their  own. 

In  short,  the  same  disposition  which  the  ancient 
Jews  so  often  manifested  in  torturing  the  words  of 
Christ  to  express  a  different  sense  from  what  he  de- 
signed, has  largely  infected  the  Christian  world  in  all 
periods.     When  he  spoke  of  his  kingdom,  the  king- 

9* 


102  THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 

dom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  he  simply 
meant  the  order  and  reign  of  his  religion ;  but  their 
minds  caught  fire  at  the  prospect  of  an  actual  earthly 
sovereignty.  So,  at  the  present  time,  nothing  will 
satisfy  some  persons  but  the  personal  advent  of  our 
Lord  bodily,  to  sway  his  sceptre  over  his  dependent 
subjects.  It  is  not  enough  for  them  that  his  religion 
is  enthroning  itself  above  principalities  and  powers, 
ascending  a  loftier  4:hrone  than  that  of  the  Caesars, 
and  subjecting  kingdom  after  kingdom  and  conti- 
nent after  continent  to  his  laws.  They  are  not  con- 
tent that  he  is  beginning  to  reign  as  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  the  Deliverer  of  the  captive,  and  the  univer- 
sal Saviour  of  the  world.  They  slight  the  tokens  of 
his  coming  in  tb"^-  selfish  and  w^arlike  passions  being 
softened,  and  in  the  growth  of  a  true  self-respect,  so- 
cial order,  civil  and  religious  liberty,  general  educa- 
tion. Christian  morals,  and  the  reformations  of  this 
age.  But  they  are  haunted  with  the  pageantry  of  a 
throne,  a  sceptre,  attendants,  ministers,  and  all  the 
coarse  accompaniments  of  royalty.  Like  some  of 
old,  they  would  take  Jesus  and  make  him  king. 
But  by  giving  a  spiritual  construction  to  the  words 
of  our  Saviour,  we  yield  them  the  highest  sense,  the 
truest  dignity.  For  the  outward  reign  of  the  best 
sovereign  is  but  little ;  while  the  inward  subjection 
of  the  whole  man  to  Jesus,  the  bringing  of  all  the 
forces  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  world  into  his 
obedience  and  consequent  freedom,  is  the  only  real 
glory,  either  to  the  spiritual  ruler  or  to  his  spiritual 
followers. 


THE    LETTER    AND     THE    SPIRIT.  103 

Another  instance,  among  the  many  which  might 
be  mentioned,  in  which  the  teachings  of  Christ  were 
obscured  by  an  adherence  to  the  letter,  was  when  he 
spoke  of  his  connection  with  his  F'ather.  Because 
he  said  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  they  accused  him 
of  making  himself  equal  with  God  ;  a  position  which 
he  never  claimed.  But  by  their  literal  understanding 
of  his  words,  they  narrowed  and  degraded  his  idea. 
In  the  same  sense  he  said,  "  I  .and  my  Father  are 
one."  It  is  not  explaining  away  this  remarkable 
phrase  to  say,  that  not  oneness  of  person,  identity  of 
consciousness,  is  meant,  but  unison  of  affection,  pur- 
pose, and  interest.  This  is  to  give  it  the  true  and 
spiritual  sense.  The  oneness  of  Jesus  with  God  in 
a  moral  sense,  as  filled  with  his  love,  reflecting  his 
attributes,  obedient  to  his  will,  and  engaged  in  his 
highest  service,  is  a  far  greater  and  more  inspiring 
idea  than  bare  identity  of  being.  The  one  is  poor 
and  cold,  because  it  is  of  the  letter  ;  the  other  is  pro- 
found and  sanctifying,  because  it  is  of  the  spirit,  and 
therefore  giveth  life. 

One  of  the  greatest  mischiefs  which  creeds  and 
textual,  verbal  controversy  have  inflicted  is,  that  they 
have  attracted  attention  to  the  letter  of  Scripture, 
and  so  far  have  thrown  its  spirit  into  obscurity. 
They  have  exercised  the  skill  of  the  grammarian 
more  than  the  temper  of  the  saint.  They  have  sent 
the  Christian  student  to  his  lexicon  oftener  than  to 
his  prayers.  They  have  turned  the  simplicity  of 
Scripture  into  the  jargon  of  metaphysics.     Are  we 


104  THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 

to  believe,  and  believe  only  what  is  in  a  creed,  com- 
posed by  fallible  men  in  imperfect  language  ?  Shall 
we  go  whither  it  goes,  and  stop  where  it  stops? 
What,  Christianity  shut  up  in  a  creed,  imprisoned  in 
the  Assembly's  Catechism,  the  Presbyterian  Confes- 
sion, or  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  !  —  then  might  the 
sea  be  poured  into  a  nutshell.  Christianity  is  shut 
up  in  no  form  of  words,  for  it  is  greater  than  all 
words.  It  is  a  spirii,  and  like  its  embodiment  Christ, 
like  its  author  God,  no  expressions  can  perfectly  de- 
scribe, as  no  thought  can  fully  comprehend  it.  The 
language  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  sign,  symbol, 
manifestation  of  this  spirit,  —  a  true,  beautiful,  forci- 
ble manifestation ;  but  the  spirit  itself  still  soars  far 
above  and  beyond,  pure  as  heaven,  blest  as  Jesus,  in- 
finite as  God.  After  this  spirit  we  ought  to  aspire, 
and  not  yield  adherence  to  the  dead  letter,  and  cling 
to  literal  words. 

An  analogous  case  will  illustrate  this  view  more 
fully.  I  go  forth  to  witness  the  fair  creation  at  this 
refulgent  season  of  the  year,  when  heaven  seems  to 
have  descended  to  sojourn  for  a  time  upon  the  earth. 
I  walk  amidst  endless  signs  of  beauty  and  order  and 
wisdom  and  power  and  goodness.  The  pure  blue  sky, 
as  it  softly  meets  my  eye,  the  fresh  breeze,  as  it  fans 
my  brow,  and  the  harmony  of  every  grove,  convey  to 
the  soul  an  indescribable  sense  of  the  reality  and  pres- 
ence of  God.  I  care  not  to  dwell  on  any  single  leaf, 
or  cloud,  or  sunbeam,  to  learn  that  God  is  great  and 
good.     All  nature  declares  it  with  one  voice.     All  is 


THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT.  105 

grand,  all  is  fair,  all  is  wise.  The  same  master-idea 
is  expressed  by  each  individual  star  and  tree  and 
flower.  But  I  will  not  scan  too  curiously  these  sin- 
gle letters  of  the  mighty  alphabet,  the  infinite  lan- 
guage of  the  Almighty ;  let  me  rise  to  the  spirit  of 
the  whole,  to  Him  who  is  greater  than  his  works. 
Thus  only  shall  I  receive  the  truest  and  most  inspir- 
ing idea  of  the  Infinite  and  Ever-Blessed  One. 
When  I  see  a  fine  landscape,  when  I  behold  the 
worlds  of  fire  and  glory  that  roll  and  shine  above  us, 
I  feel  myself  in  the  presence  of  One  who  could 
make  a  yet  fairer  world,  yet  more  glorious  and  stu- 
pendous exhibitions  of  his  unbounded  perfections; 
of  One  who  has  not  exhausted  himself,  but  rejoices 
in  making  ever  new  revelations  of  himself  in  the 
boundless  fields  of  the  universe. 

In  a  similar  spirit  ought  we  to  commune  with  the 
word  of  God  and  with  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  not  cling 
to  the  words  with  a  schoolboy  literalness,  but  seek  to 
enter  into  the  life-giving  spirit.  This  or  that  text,  or 
all  texts,  cannot  fully  describe  the  sum  total  of 
Christianity.  Here  are  signs,  symbols,  pointing  to 
it,  and  partially  representing  it,  as  the  sun,  moon, 
flowers,  mountains,  partially  exhibit  God;  but  we 
must  not  stick  in  these,  and  lose  the  living  energy  of 
the  whole.  The  Gospel  is  taught  us  by  a  life,  a 
death,  a  resurrection,  an  ascension.  These  facts 
convey  what  no  mere  description  could  embody,  a 
weight  and  world  of  meaning,  which  no  progress 
can  exhaust,  no  discoveries  supersede.     And  if  we 


106 


THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 


would  devote  more  time  to  imbibing  the  large,  gen- 
erous, deep-toned  spirit  of  our  religion,  to  receiving 
and  freshening  in  our  hearts  its  glorious  principles 
and  ideas,  and  less  attention  were  given  to  the  letter 
and  external  doctrines,  our  progress  would  be  far 
more  satisfactory.  For  men  become  disciples  of  the 
Saviour,  not  by  following  set  rules,  but  by  drinking 
in  his  spirit,  the  spirit  of  all  holiness  and  goodness. 
Not  that  the  distinctive  precepts  and  positive  com- 
mands of  the  Master  are  not  to  be  most  faithfully 
followed ;  but  they  are  to  be  obeyed  in  the  spirit, 
their  sense  to  be  perceived,  their  relations  and  effects 
to  be  understood,  and  their  tone  of  feeling  to  be 
cherished ;  and  then  obedience  will  not  be  of  con- 
straint, but  willingly,  virtue  will  not  be  a  mechani- 
cal propriety,  but  the  inmost  perfection  of  the  char- 
acter. And  nothing  can  ever  help  society  to  outgrow 
the  narrowness  and  exclusiveness  of  the  systems  of 
theology  generally  received,  but  the  reception  of  the 
great  central  principles  of  the  Gospel ;  love  to  God, 
love  to  man,  the  worth  of  the  soul,  the  accountable- 
ness  of  the  individual,  the  sublimity  of  human  des- 
tiny, and  the  certainty  of  retribution.  In  the  pres- 
ence and  under  the  action  of  these  eternal  truths, 
these  magnificent  sentiments,  all  littleness  and  big- 
otry stand  abashed,  and  hasten  to  hide  themselves  in 
that  night  to  which  they  belong. 

While,  then,  we  would  say  wrfh  the  prophet,  "  To 
the  law  and  to  the  testimony,"  we  would  also  add, 
"  To   its   life-giving   spirit,  not  to  its  dead  letter." 


THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT.  107 

The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  a  new  moral  creation.  It 
is  a  universe  of  truth.  Its  great  ideas  never  can  be 
exhausted,  nor  its  perfect  laws  displaced.  But  so  far 
as  we  insist  on  single  words,  texts,  —  the  tokens  and 
emblems  of  these  laws  and  ideas,  —  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  general  import,  we  shut  ourselves  out  of  this 
glorious  creation,  we  blind  our  eyes  to  this  beautiful 
universe,  and  creep  into  a  dark  corner.  But  the  pure 
resolve,  the  earnest  prayer,  the  breathing  of  the  heart 
after  light  and  rest  and  God,  will  take  us  out  into  its 
invigorating  air  and  sunshine  and  divine  beauty.  If 
we  choose  to  be  contracted  and  illiberal,  it  is  easy  to 
be  so,  though  all  the  while  we  date  from  the  Church 
of  God,  and  register  our  names  among  the  followers 
of  the  Lamb.  But  if  we  would  be  growing  Chris- 
tians, either  personally  or  as  a  Church  ;  if  we  would 
enjoy  religion,  and  find  its  yoke  easy  and  its  burden 
light,  we  must  pierce  through  the  shell  to  the  kernel, 
and  enter  more  into  the  spirit  of  our  faith,  and  rise 
to  ever  new  and  holier  views  of  life  and  duty. 
Though  prisoners  in  the  flesh,  we  are  prisoners  of 
hope,  and  may  bathe  our  souls  in  the  heaven  of  light 
and  love.  In  saying  this,  no  recommendation  is 
given  to  vagueness  or  mysticism.  An  habitual  state 
of  sentimental  reverie  enfeebles  every  virtue,  and 
prostrates  all  manliness  of  character.  A  spurious 
spiritualism  is  one  of  the  follies  of  the  day,  though 
far  from  being  native  to  the  New  England  mind. 
But  what  is  most  earnestly  advised  is  the  spiritual 
study  of  religion  and  its  records  in  preference  to  its 


108  THE    LETTER    AND    THE    SPIRIT. 

doctrinal,  or  textual,  or  verbal  study.  Not  that  one 
may  not  be  good,  but  the  other  is  far  better.  For 
while  one  may  give  us  an  accurate  creed,  though  it 
can  hardly  do  that,  the  other  inspires  a  divine  life. 
The  one  may  save  us  from  absurdity,  though  it  has 
not  always  accomplished  even  that  end,  but  the  other 
rescues  us  from  sin.  The  one  may  make  us  good 
theologians,  though  it  has  made  many  poor  ones,  but 
the  other  constitutes  us  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs 
with  Christ  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible  and  unde- 
filed,  and  that  fadeth  not  away. 

Religion  is  a'  history,  an  institution,  and  a  doc- 
trine, but  eminently  and  always  it  is  a  spirit.  The 
law  of  the  spirit  of  life,  or,  to  drop  the  Hebrew 
idiom,  the  law  of  the  living  spirit  in  Christ  Jesus, 
hath  made  me  free,  said  Paul,  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.  Would  that  all  men  might  forthwith 
enter  into  that  living  spirit !  Shall  we  be  ever  learn- 
ing, and  never  come  to  the  experimental  knowledge 
of  the  truth  ?  Shall  we  always  remain  among  the 
first  rudiments,  among  the  beggarly  elements  ?  Let 
us  be  satisfied  with  no  dead-letter  profession,  or  un- 
derstanding, or  practice  of  religion.  If  it  is  any- 
thing, it  is  a  thing  of  spirit,  life,  reality,  progress.  If 
it  is  anything,  it  is  everything,  the  very  breath  of 
our  being. 

If  the  Christian  teacher  can  have  one  desire  higher 
and  purer  than  any  other,  as  the  heavens  are  higher 
than  the  earth,  it  is  that  his  flock  may  be  spiritually- 
minded  Christians  ;  not  that  they  bear  this  name  or 


THE  LETTER  AND  THE  SPIRIT.        109 

* 

that,  —  how  poor  will  sectarian  titles  look  in  the  light 
of  the  eternal  throne  !  how  discordant  will  the  watch- 
words of  party  sound  in  the  seraphic  choir !  —  but 
that  they  may  be  living  men  in  Christ  Jesus.  To 
start  one  soul  in  the  endless  progress  and  bliss  of  a 
divine  and  spiritual  life  were  doing  more  than  to 
cast  a  thousand  minds  in  the  mould  of  a  human 
creed,  or  make  them  feeble  imitators  of  some  great 
leader.  Brethren,  our  hearts'  desire  and  prayer  is, 
that  you  may  be  Christians  in  all  the  vast  and  un- 
fathomed  meaning  of  that  word  ;  that  you  may  have 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  without  which  you  are  none  of 
his.  And  what  is  "  the  fruit  of  that  spirit,  but  love, 
joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith, 
meekness,  temperance?  Against  such  there  is  no 
law." 


10 


DISCOUESE    VI. 


THE    CONQUEST    OE   EVIL.=^ 

BE  NOT  OVERCOME  OF  EVIL,  BUT  OVERCOME  EVIL  WITH  GOOD. — 

Romans  xii.  21. 

The  nature  and  office  of  Philosophy  are  quite  dis- 
tinct from  the  nature  and  office  of  the  Gospel.  Phi- 
losophy cannot  take  the  place  of  Religion,  nor  Relig- 
ion that  of  Philosophy ;  for  one  is  the  highest  wisdom 
of  man,  but  the  other  is  the  perfect  wisdom  of  God. 
The  philosopher  speculates,  suggests ;  the  prophet 
declares,  commands.  The  philosopher  speaks  from 
the  largest  human  reason,  and  his  words  are  great 
«and  good;  the  prophet  speaks  from  the  larger  reason 
and  higher  inspiration  of  the  Divinity,  —  not  at  war 
with  the  purest  conclusions  of  reason,  but  beyond 
and  above  them,  as  heaven  is  above  the  earth. 
Great  in  history  are  the  names  of  Plato  and  Confu- 
cius, but  those  of  Moses  and  Christ  are  not  only 
greater,  but  of  a  different  order  of  greatness,  so  that 

*  A  Discourse  preached  at  the  Installation  of  Rev.  John  Jay  Put- 
nam as  Pastor  of  the  First  'Congregrational  Church  and  Society  in 
Bolton,  Massachusetts,  September  26, 1849. 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  Ill 

it  is  not  reverential  to  place  them  in  juxtaposition, 
except  by  \vS,y  of  contrast.  And  Philosophy  has 
showed  at  once  her  true  character  and  merit,  when, 
after  achieving  her  noblest  triumphs  by  her  Bacons, 
her  Lockes,  and  her  Newtons,  she  has  come  and 
seated  herself  humbly  and  modestly  at  the  feet  of 
Him,  the  Teacher  come  from  God,  who  "  taught  as 
one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes." 

But  Philosophy,  though  utterly  incapable,  as  ex- 
perience and  history  demonstrate,  of  standing  in  the 
holy  sanctuary  and  teaching  sinful  man  the  way  to 
God,  performs  a  most  valuable  service  as  a  hand- 
maiden to  Christianity.  Philosophy  has  a  necessary 
work  in  applying  religion  to  human  nature,  life,  and 
society.  Like  the  dense  atmosphere  of  the  earth,  it 
can  well  reflect  and  refract  the  pure  light  of  heaven, 
and  make  it  useful  to  man.  Or,  to  change  the  illus- 
tration, though,  like  the  sun-glass,  it  has  no  intrinsic 
light  and  heat  of  its  own,  sufficient  to  enlighten  and 
warm  the  world,  yet,  like  that  humble  instrument^  it 
can  cause  the  diffused  beams  of  the  sun  to  converge 
to  a  focus,  and  light  a  fire  which  its  scattered  rays 
never  could  have  kindled.  In  other  words,  human 
wisdom  is  needed  in  converting  to  the  best  ends  the 
Divine  wisdom.  A  philosophical  knowledge  of  his- 
tory, and  especially  of  the  history  of  the  Church,  of 
human  nature  in  its  strong  and  its  weak  points,  of 
society  as  now  existing  and  working,  is  an  important 
part  of  the  mental  furniture  of  the  Christian  teacher. 
He  can  neither  add  to  nor  take  from  the  pure  truths 


112  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

of  the  Gospel,  as  they  shine  on  the  pages  of  the 
Apostles  and  Evangelists,  but  a  true  philosophy  will 
make  him  far  more  expert  and  efficient  in  reducing 
them  to  practice,  in  bringing  them  within  the  circle 
of  man's  appreciation,  and  in  urging  them  home  as 
living  realities  on  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  In 
a  word,  the  Christian  minister  should  be  a  philoso- 
pher ;  not  that  he  may  teach  philosophy,  but  that  he 
may  truly  and  effectually  teach  Christianity.  For 
"  we  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  that  the 
excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God,  and  not 
of  us." 

The  Apostle  in  the  text  has  stated  an  important 
law  of  spiritual  progress,  the  philosophical  method 
of  individual  and  social  regeneration.  He  has  here 
generalized  and  announced  the  Christian  mode  of 
spiritually  dealing  with  ourselves  and  with  mankind. 
It  is,  in  few  words,  the  process  of  changing  the  heart, 
and  through  the  heart  changing  the  life  by  what  has 
been  called  "  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affec- 
tion." By  this  law  of  our  moral  constitution,  that 
"  which  is  in  part  can  be  done  away  only  when  that 
which  is  perfect  comes."  Positive  good,  accordingly, 
is  the  match  for  evil,  light  the  agency  to  disperse 
darkness,  truth  the  power  to  overcome  error,  the  per- 
fect Gospel  the  divine  instrument  to  redeem  imper- 
fect and  erring  man.  "  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but 
overcome  evil  with  good." 

If  this  philosophy  of  mental  and  moral  influence 
had  been  better  understood  and  carried  into  effect, 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  113 

the  truth  would  have  been  spared  many  defeats,  and 
the  disciples  of  Christ  many  discouragements.  For 
they  have  in  past  times  often  sought  to  promote 
Christianity  in  unphilosophical  and  unnatural  ways, 
and,  of  course,  have  been  disappointed.  They  have 
not  paid  that  attention  to  the  elements  and  powers 
with  which  they  have  had  to  do,  that  the  chemist, 
the  mechanic,  the  naturalist,  have  been  obliged  to 
give,  if  they  would^win  success  in  their  several 
spheres  of  action.  But  the  operation  of  the  moral 
laws,  if  not  as  prompt,  is  as  stringent  and  inevitable 
as  that  of  the  material,  and  no  zeal,  no  energy,  no 
devotion,  can  make  amends  for  a  defective  process. 
"  Nature,"  as  the  poet  said,  "  cannot  be  driven  out 
with  a  pitchfork,"  and  the  illustration  applies  to  the 
world  of  mind  as  much  as  to  the  world  of  matter.  It 
is,  therefore,  of  prime  consequence  that  we  not  only 
have,  what  we  believe  we  have,  the  perfect  and 
heaven-appointed  instrument  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  but  that  we  use,  ap- 
ply, adapt  that  instrument  to  human  nature  and 
society,  according  to  its  own  spirit  and  intent,  and 
according  to  a  sound  philosophy  of  human  nature 
and  the  human  condition. 

Thus,  for  example,  one  of  the  unphilosophical 
methods  of  past  ages  has  been  persecution.  Pains 
and  penalties  have  been  made  the  remedy  for  error. 
Torture  has  been  used  for  conviction  and  persuasion. 
Christianity,  as  well  as  Mahometanism,  has  been 
promulgated  by  the  sword  at  certain  periods.  Car- 
lo • 


114  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

nal  weapons  have  been  employed  to  do  a  spiritual 
work. 

Another  unphilosophical  mode  of  operating  on 
men  for  a  religious  end  has  been  by  terror.  All  the 
fears  which  man  has  been  capable  of  feeling,  have 
been  appealed  to,  and  made  the  grand  instrument  of 
conversion.  Fear  is  doubtless  a  proper  motive  in  its 
place,  but  its  place  is  a  low  one.  To  bring  it  into 
prominent  or  exclusive  use  is  as  absurd  as  to  use  but 
one  kind  of  food,  clothing,  or  medicine.  Fear-made 
Christians  will  always  betray  the  error  of  their  spirit- 
ual birth,  in  a  certain  dwarfed  and  warped  character. 
Terror  has  been  the  potent  spirit  of  the  revival  sys- 
tem, and  certain  tracts  of  the  country  over  which  it 
has  passed  have  been  designated  by  a  fearful,  but 
descriptive  term,  as  "  the  burnt  disirict^sJ^  The  ver- 
dure of  nature  has  perished,  and  even  the  fire  itself 
cannot  be  kindled  there  again. 

Denunciation  is  still  another  mode,  which,  if  exclu- 
sively adopted,  ruins  the  cause  it  would  promote. 
To  call  certain  sects  of  Christians  by  hard  names, 
to  array  against  them  the  prejudices  of  the  commu- 
nity, to  torture  all  they  do  and  say,  by  a  perverse 
ingenuity,  into  something  sinful  or  criminal,  to  spend 
and  be  spent,  not  in  seeing  how  good  we  can  make 
ourselves,  but  how  bad  we  can  prove  our  neighbors 
to  be,  is  surely  very  wide  of  the  aim  proposed  by  the 
Apostle  Paul  in  the  text.  One  of  the  chief  privileges, 
perhaps,  of  our  country  and  our  age  is,  that  in  some 
measure  they  have  lifted  off  this  immense  power  of 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  115 

persecution  by  denunciation,  and  given  men  hardi- 
hood and  room  to  think  their  own  free  thoughts  and 
speak  their  own  free  words  on  religious  subjects. 
There  is  some  practical  freedom  here  and  now,  while 
in  most  countries  and  ages  it  has  had  but  a  specula- 
tive existence. 

Again,  artifice  and  deception  have  been  but  too 
often,  and  still  are,  the  modes  applied  to  spread  the 
holy  Gospel.  "Pious  frauds"  have  been  commit- 
ted; "Do  evil,  that  good  may  come,"  has  been  a 
maxim  but  too  faithfully  followed  in  some  quarters. 
Political  intrigues,  and,  where  they  failed,  force  of 
arms,  have  recently  been  the  instrument  of  upholding 
the  Papal  throne  ;  —  darkest,  saddest,  most  wicked  of 
all  the  deeds  of  a  wicked  generation ! 

I  might  proceed  in  this  enumeration  of  the  unphil- 
osophical  and  unchristian  methods,  current  in  Chris- 
tendom, of  promoting  the  Gospel,  but  enough  has 
been  said  to  give  a  general  idea  of  them.  Against 
such  agencies  and  means  the  text  and  the  spirit  of 
the  whole  New  Testament,  I  scarcely  need  say,  enter 
their  remonstrance.  For  the  rule  laid  down  by  the 
Apostle  virtually  excludes  all  other  rules,  or  makes 
them  entirely  subordinate.  It  proposes,  as  the  best 
and  highest  method  of  overcoming  evil,  to  do  it  by 
the  counter  victorious  influence  of  good. 

It  is  evident  that  the  means  used  ought  to  be  in 
harmony  with  the  end  proposed.  To  promote  a  bad 
cause  by  bad  methods  is  what  we  might  reasonably 
expect ;  but  to  seek  the  promotion  of  truth  by  means 


116  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

of  error,  of  good  by  means  of  evil,  is  utterly  incon- 
sistent. But  more  than  this,  it  is  in  the  long  run 
utterly  impracticable.  However  apparently  success- 
ful for  a  season  worldly  agencies  may  be  in  advan- 
cing the  cause  of  God,  yet  in  the  end  they  are  signally 
defeated.  The  laws  of  Providence  cannot  be  cheated. 
"False  weights  and  measures  will  not  long  avail  any- 
where. Truth,  love,  righteousness,  holiness,  must 
be  the  leading  characteristics  of  all  the  modes  of 
influence  by  which  we  propose  to  spread  truth,  love, 
righteousness,  and  holiness.  In  all  things  like  begets 
like. 

I.  We  may  apply  this  rationale  of  procedure  to 
Theology,  In  the  language  of  one  of  our  wise  men, 
lately  expressed,  "  it  is  only  by  religious  truth  that 
religious  errors,  with  all  their  attendant  evils,  can  be 
done  away."  The  main  difficulty  in  most  contro- 
versies in  the  Christian  Church  has  been,  that  they 
are  mere  clashings  together  of  two  systems  of  error, 
not  the  grapplings  of  truth  with  error.  If  Luther 
attempted  to  root  out  transubstantiation,  it  was  by 
the  equal  absurdity  of  consubstantiation.  If  the 
Protestants  in  general  strove  zealously  against  the 
Papacy,  they  contended  at  the  same  time  as  ardently 
for  infallible  creeds  of  their  own,  and  persecuted  all 
doubters  as  heretics.  If  the  Church  of  England  dis- 
owned the  validity  of  the  first  ordinance  of  the  Gos- 
pel as  consisting  in  the  amount  of  water  employed 
in  its  administration,  yet  she  ran  into  the  error  still 
worse,  if  possible,  of  baptismal  regeneration.     If  the 


THE     COx\QUEST     OF     EVIL.  117 

extreme  of  the  eternity  of  hell-torments,  in  the  Cal- 
vinistic  sense,  has  called  forth  an  answer,  it  has  too 
often  been  that  of  immediate,  unconditional,  and 
universal  salvation.  So  on  the  battle-field  of  Theol- 
ogy has  error  fought  with  error,  and  dogma  warred 
against  dogma. 

Here  the  philosophical  mode  of  the  Apostle  Paul 
proffers  itself.  It  is  not  to  knock  down  errors,  so 
much  as  to  set  up  truths.  It  is  not  to  disprove  the 
negative,  but  to  present  the  affirmative.  It  is  to 
preach  positively,  rather  than  controversially  ;  not  to 
contend  against  the  darkness,  but  to  "light  a  candle, 
and  put  it  on  a  candlestick,  that  it  may  give  light 
unto  all  that  are  in  the  house."  I  am  far  from  say- 
ing that  noxious  errors  are  not  to  be  vigorously 
attacked  occasionally,  and  their  true  character  re- 
vealed, but  it  is  to  be  done  in  perfect  charity.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  prevailing  and  all-absorbing  work  of 
the  Christian  theologian  is  to  proclaim  and  press 
home  the  truth,  —  plain,  positive.  Gospel  truth.  The 
warfare  of  the  sects  cannot  be  pacified,  as  long  as 
they  pursue  their  present  methods  of  operation.  For 
if  existing  difficulties  were  all  settled,  with  their  bel- 
ligerent spirit  and  dispositipn  to  fight  down  error, 
rather  than  to  show  up  the  truth,  a  new  class  of 
questions  would  soon  arise,  a  new  set  of  dragon's 
teeth,  according  to  the  fable,  be  sown,  and  a  new 
crop  of  armed  men  spring  up. 

The  vast  systems  of  error  embraced  in  the  theol- 
ogy of  Rome,  of  Oxford,  and  of  Geneva,  consolidated 


118  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

through  many  generations,  intertwined  with  civil 
institutions  and  social  customs,  half  sanctified  by 
the  memory  of  the  many  good  men  who  have  been 
so  because  they  were  more  Christians  than  Catho- 
lics, Episcopalians,  or  Calvinists,  widely  diffused  in 
literature,  deeply  tincturing  education,  and  wrought 
into  every  portion  of  modern  society,  cannot  fall  at 
once,  nor  in  our  wise  moments  shall  we  ask  it  or 
wish  it.  Better  an  erroneous  and  superstitious  faith, 
than  an  inundation  of  scepticism.  But  the  safe  and 
eventual  remedy  for  these  imperfect  religions,  as  for 
the  imperfect  scientific  or  political  systems  of  past 
times,  which  try  to  outlive  their  day,  is  in  the  truth. 
That  is  mighty,  and  it  will  prevail.  Thus  alchemy, 
astrology,  are  done  away,  beyond  recall,  when  chem- 
istry, when  astronomy,  come.  Thus  feudal  institu- 
tions depart  before  the  power  of  new  ideas,  or 
undergo  important  modifications.  In  this  view,  our 
chief  anxiety  should  not  be  success,  but  that  we  may 
have  the  pure  truth,  that  we  may  drink  in  the  spirit 
of  a  boundless  charity ;  for  against  the  truth,  spoken 
in  love,  nothing  of  error,  however  petrified  in  forms 
and  customs,  however  hallowed  by  antiquity,  or  but- 
tressed up  by  authority,  can  finally  maintain  its 
ground. 

We  feel  assured  that,  as  Liberal  Christians,  we  have 
a  Christian  theology,  an  interpretation  of  the  Gos- 
pel which  escapes  most  of  the  errors,  and  embodies 
most  of  the  truths,  which  are  to  be  found  in  the 
superannuated  bodies  of  divinity.     The  doctrines  of 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  119 

God,  the  Father ;  Christ,  the  Saviour ;  and  Man,  the 
brother;  of  life,  as  a  school  to  learn  in,  and  not  a 
prison,  to  suffer  in ;  sin,  as  a  fearful,  but  not  an  infi- 
nite, and  not  necessarily  an  eternal,  evil;^of  forgive- 
ness, as  consequent  on  repentance  and  amendment, 
not  on  the  sacrifice  of  the  innocent  for  the  guilty ;  of 
the  sufficiency  of  Him  to  save  whom  God  has  ap- 
pointed to  save,  though  he  be  less  than  God,  and 
more  than  man ;  of  faith  as  rational,  not  less  than 
Scriptural;  of  character  as  determining  our  condition 
hereafter;  of  a  righteous  award,  and  justice  admin- 
istered with  mercy,  and  the  spirit  shining  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  and  eternal  day,  —  these  doc- 
trines, and  others  kindred  to  them,  we  are  con- 
vinced, are  true,  and  will  win  their  way.  We  claim 
not  infallibility,  but  appeal  to  revelation  interpreted 
by  reason  in  the  light  of  faith.  And.  for  a  true  re- 
vival of  religion,  not  a  transient  emotion,  but  a  deep 
life-sentiment,  we  feel  bound  on  all  proper  occasions 
to  preach,  teach,  and  enforce  these  doctrines.  They 
are  full  of  light  and  love,  and  wherever  spread,  the 
theological  night  will  flee  before  them,  as  the  dark- 
ness before  the  morning  aurora.  As  we  welcome 
another  laborer  to  the  Master's  service,  we  trust  that 
he  will  be  the  diligent  student  of  this  nobler  Chris- 
tian theology,  that  he  may  be  a  powerful  and  per- 
suasive preacher  of  righteousness.  If  you  would 
satisfy  man's  thirst,  or  purge  away  the  errors  and 
evils  that  infest  the  human  soul,  draw,  my  brother, 
draw  from  the  deep  fountain  of  the  Gospel  the 
waters  of  everlasj;ing  life. 


120  THE     CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

II.  This  scientific  mode  is  also  applicable  to  Spir- 
itual Culture^  whether  in  the  young  or  the  old. 

In  education,  the  true  way  to  prevent  evil  is  to 
fill  the  mind  with  good ;  to  overcome  bad  passions, 
is  to  call  into  exercise  good  ones.  Even  in  the  worst, 
there  still  remain  certain  indestructible  moral  ele- 
ments, like  the  beautiful  figures  in  the  glass  paper- 
weights, buried  deep  in  the  very  substance,  which 
can  only  be  destroyed  by  annihilating  the  whole 
handiwork  in  which  they  are  inserted.  And  where 
better  principles  have  fallen  into  disuse,  the  duty  is 
plain  to  revive  their  activity,  and  to  restore  the  lost 
balance  of  the  moral  constitution.  We  have  done 
little  or  no  good  to  a  child  when  we  have  brought 
one  set  of  selfish  motives  to  overbear  another  set  of 
the  same  kind,  and  by  the  mere  fear  of  punishment, 
hope  of  reward,  or  desire  to  excel  others,  have  sought 
to  conquer  sloth,  reluctance  to  study  or  work,  and 
sensual  dispositiofis.  The  human  mind  has  many 
strings,  and  these  are  but  a  few  of  the  lowest  and 
coarsest,  necessary  and  harmonious  in  their  place, 
but  not  to  be  exclusively  or  chiefly  struck.  Let  the 
teacher  fearlessly  touch  the  higher  chords  of  duty, 
love,  gratitude,  sympathy,  aspiration,  and  a  response 
will  be  given,  faint  it  may  be  at  first,  but  rising  and 
swelling  at  last  into  strains  sweet  and  pure  as  the 
songs  of  angels. 

In  the  work  of  personal,  experimental  religion, 
also,  we  often  meet  with  difficulties  and  discourage- 
ments because  we  adopt  a  false  and  unphilosophical 


THE    CONQUEST     OF    EVIL.  121 

mode  of  self-discipline.  The  end  is  plain  before  us. 
It  is  moral  power,  spiritual  refinement,  increasing 
heavenly-mindedness.  But  how  to  raise  these  fal- 
tering, backsliding  characters  of  ours  to  such  heights 
of  Christian  excellence,  and  maintain  our  position  in 
the  pure  ether,  when  earth  and  its  powerful  attrac- 
tions are  drawing  us  down  to  its  gross  interests,  and 
its  dead  level  of  conformity,  is  the  difficult  problem. 
The  Apostle  has  given  us  precept  and  philosophy  in 
few  words.  "  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome 
evil  with  good."  This  is  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem. We  can  do  away  the  evils  of  our  characters, 
and  the  sins  of  our  conduct,  by  the  presence  and 
influence  of  better  motives  and  feelings,  by  the  regen- 
erating energy  of  a  higher  class  of  motives.  We 
cannot  cast  out  Satan  by  Satan,  or  command  the 
devils  to  depart  in  any  other  name  than  that  of  the 
great  exorcist,  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  the  only  adequate  sanctifier. 

It  is  in  this  connection  we  see  the  mistake,  so 
graphically  portrayed  by  the  Saviour,  of  the  man  in 
the  Gospel.  When  the  unclean  spirit  left  him,  he 
simply  swept  and  garnished  its  habitation,  and  made 
ready  for  the  accommodation  of  seven  other  spirits 
worse  than  the  first,  instead  of  filling  his  apartments 
so  full  of  good  spirits  that  the  bad  ones  would  find 
no  welcome,  and  no  room  to  abide  in.  The  human 
mind  cannot  remain  unoccupied.  A  vacuum  cannot 
be  created  in  the  moral,  any  more  than  in  the  mate- 
rial world.  Every  mental  space,  so  to  say,  will  be 
11 


122  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

full  of  something ;  the  only  question  is,  whether  that 
something  shall  be  good  or  bad.  Objection  is  some- 
times made  to  giving  children  a  religious  faith,  be- 
cause we  shall  sow  their  young  natures  with  preju- 
dices and  biases.  But  they  cannot  be  kept  neutral 
and  passive,  and  we  must  decide  whether  it  is  better 
that  they  should  contract  the  haphazard  biases  and 
prejudices  of  society,  or  the  faith  and  opinions  of 
their  parents  and  teachers.  Every  mind  will  have 
its  leading  thought,  and  every  heart  its  determining 
affection.  If  the  true  God  be  not  worshipped  and 
loved,  then  some  idol  will  desecrate  the  inner  sanc- 
tuary of  the  soul.  The  question  of  salvation  is  not 
whether  the  soul  shall  act,  or  remain  inert,  for  act  it 
will  by  the  force  of  a  natural,  instinctive  law  ;  but  it 
is  whether  it  shall  act  downward  or  upward,  wheth- 
er it  shall  assimilate  itself  to  the  earthly  or  to  the 
heavenly,  whether  it  shall  pour  all  its  energies  into 
the  channel  of  worldly  interests,  or  raise  them  to 
spiritual  duties,  objects,  and  realities.  God  or  Mam- 
mon is  the  alternative.  The  only  way  not  to  serve 
the  false  divinity  is  earnestly  to  serve  the  true  one. 
The  proper  method,  accordingly,  either  to  begin  or 
to  prosecute  the  Christian  course,  is  to  put  forth  pos- 
itive and  earnest  efforts  to  rise,  rather  than  endeavors 
not  to  fall. 

Religion  is  most  effective  when  it  passes  from  a 
law  of  restraint  into  an  impulse  to  good,  a  predomi- 
nant motive,  an  informing  and  quickening  life  of  the 
soul.     Then  it  is  not  the  negation  of  evil,  but  the 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  123 

presence  and  possession  of  good ;  not  the  mere  irk- 
some conformity  to  a  precept,  but  the  happy  growth 
of  the  spiritual  constitution  towards  perfection. 

It  will  be  your  duty,  and  I  know,  my  brother,  it 
will  be  your  happiness,  to  preach,  not  only  a  Chris- 
tian theology,  but  a  practical,  working,  improving 
faith,  as  its  chief  worthy  conclusion.  The  exhorta- 
tion will  be  ever  sounding  forth  from  this  pulpit, 
"*  Friend,  go  up  higher';  forget  the  things  behind  ; 
press  onward  to  those  before  ;  let  no  day  pass  with- 
out its  step  forward,  without  some  grace  or  excellence 
of  character  brightened,  some  error  or  sin  weakened, 
some  victory  won  over  envy,  or  ill-temper,  or  negli- 
gence, or  pride,  or  selfishness,  or  hate,  or  lust,  or 
some  of  the  other  evil  spirits  that  beset  us."  For  to 
live  is  not  to  eat,  sleep,  work,  move,  breathe,  but  to 
think,  feel,  choose,  love,  and  act  according  to  the 
everlasting  laws  of  the  spiritual  world.  Hence  that 
must  be  regarded  as  a  lost  day,  when  we  have  not 
done  something  to  change  the  dull,  leaden  image  of 
the  earthy  into  the  beauty  and  glory  of  the  heavenly. 

III.  The  remaining  field  of  duty  in  which  the 
law  of  influence  laid  down  by  the  Apostle  is  to  be 
employed,  is  that  of  Philanthropy.  Prohibition  is 
good  in  its  place.  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  "  Thou 
shalt  not  kill,"  form  a  part  of  that  system,  which 
Jesus  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  But  the 
law,  fearfully  enforced  and  sanctioned,  was  weak 
through  the  flesh.  Temporal  motives,  the  penalties 
of  this  world,  were  insufl[icient.     To  reform  men  of 


124  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

their  vices,  and  keep  them  reformed,  requires  the  most 
persuasive  and  controlling  influences  of  which  the 
human  heart  is  susceptible.  The  faith  of  Christ, 
opening  the  wonders,  glories,  and  terrors  of  the  spir- 
itual world,  pointing  up  to  a  Supreme  Judge  and 
forward  to  a  day  of  retribution,  disclosing  the  infinite 
love  of  God  for  his  children  on  the  earth,  has  sup- 
plied these  motives. 

It  is  therefore  less  by  fierce  attacks  on  existing 
evils,  though  for  that  work  too  there  is  sometimes  an 
imperative  call,  than  by  a  comprehensive  develop- 
ment of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  its  strenuous 
application  to  the  whole  broad  field  of  moral  reforma- 
tion, that  we  may  hope  to  do  lasting  good  to  man- 
kind. We  need  a  fresh  expansion  of  Christian  truth 
and  love,  more  than  philippics  against  any  sins  or 
any  sinners.  Jesus  and  his  Apostles  denounced  the 
vices  of  men,  but  they  devoted  the  greater  part  of 
their  time  and  teaching  to  effecting  those  radical 
changes  in  the  motives  and  principles  of  human 
action  by  which  an  entire  reformation  would  in  due 
time  be  accomplished  in  the  institutions  and  cus- 
toms of  men.  Ideas  govern  the  world.  The  dis- 
covery of  a  few  new  principles  of  an  elemental  na^ 
ture  has  created  chemistry,  astronomy,  optics,  geolo- 
gy. A  fresh  application  of  truth  changes  the  modes 
of  travelling,  mechanism,  business.  Take  now  the 
Christian  ideas,  let  them  become  real  ideas  to  men, 
not  the  ghosts  and  forms  of  ideas,  and  they  would 
transform  the  earth,  they  would  beautify  humanity. 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  125 

SO  that  there  would  be  as  great  a  distance  between 
the  men  of  the  genuine  Christian  era  of  piety  and 
human  brotherhood  and  the  men  of  our  own  time, 
as  there  is  between  a  refined  New  England  village 
and  the  barbarian  hamlets  of  our  British  ancestors 
in  the  days  of  the  Druids.  There  is  power  enough, 
latent  power,  in  the  Gospel,  to  change  the  whole  as- 
pect of  society,  and  to  bring  out  those  lovelier,  gen- 
tler, purer,  godlike  traits,  which  should  reflect  in  some 
degree  the  image,  faint  though  fair,  of  the  Divine 
loveliness,  beauty,  purity,  and  beneficence. 

But  the  world  is  now  demonized,  possessed  by 
seven  or  more  evil  spirits.  'They  rend  and  tear  it. 
They  create  poverty  and  suffering  and  death  beyond 
computation.  They  make  Ishmaelites  of  the  human 
fraternity,  and  set  every  man's  hand  against  his 
brother.  But  we  cannot  attack  these  evils,  as  Her- 
cules is  fabled  to  have  done  the  Lernean  Hydra, 
crushing  his  heads,  and  burning  the  prolific  wounds 
with  a  red-hot  iron.  A  strong  moral  indignation  has 
its  proper  periods  and  places,  but  abuse  is  not  a 
moral  instrument  of  any  great  efficacy.  We  cannot 
bury  evils  in  the  dust,  nor  rend  them  away  suddenly 
and  violently  from  the  social  fabric.  Diligently  and 
constantly  we  must  multiply  the  good,  and  that  and 
that  alone  of  all  the  weapons  in  the  universe  can  at 
last  overcome  the  evil.  We  want  in  our  Christian 
philanthropists  a  living  specimen  of  what  they  would 
make  all  men  ;  —  we  look  in  them  for  firmness,  but 
not  obstinacy ;  zeal,  but  not  fanaticism  ;  courage, 
11  * 


126  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

but  not  recklessness  ;  honest  dealing,  but  not  outrage ; 
prompt  decision,  but  not  angry  impatience.  Let  us 
learn  a  more  generous  and  kindly  tone  of  Christian 
manners,  speaking  peaceably  for  the  cause  of  Peace, 
temperately  for  the  cause  of  Temperance,  freely  for 
the  cause  of  Freedom,  purely  for  the  cause  of  Pu- 
rity, justly  for  the  cause  of  Justice,  and  humanely  for 
the  cause  of  Humanity.  God's  work  should  be  done 
in  God's  spirit.  Only  when  deeply  imbued  with 
the  temper  of  Christ,  shall  we  be  qualified  to  act 
wisely  and  permanently  in  the  cause  of  man's  refor- 
mation. If  we  hope  to  do  away  with  that  which  is 
in  part,  the  partial,  fragmentary,  and  imperfect  in 
manners,  customs,  and  institutions,  it  must  be  by 
hastening  the  coming  of  that  which  is  perfect. 

By  increasing  what  is  good,  the  evil  is  overborne 
and  excluded.  Sins  cannot  be  amputated ;  they 
must  be  outgrown.  Vicious  institutions  can  only  be 
reformed,  that  is,  formed  again,  not  wholly  supersed- 
ed. They  must  be  worn  away,  rather  than  cut  off. 
Time  and  patience  are  needed  even  in  the  ripen- 
ing of  the  annual  fruits  of  the  earth,  —  how  much 
more  in  the  great  harvest  of  the  world  and  of  ages, 
and  the  maturing  of  the  spirit !  —  "  first  the  blade,  then 
the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear."  In  this 
work  much  has  been  done,  the  world  has  grown  better, 
and  will  continue  to  grow  better,  if  men  will  adopt 
the  true  and  Christian  philosophy  on  the  subject. 
Nor  need  we  fear  any  general  and  fatal  relapse.  As 
in  science  we  can  never  return  to  the  beggarly  ele- 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  127 

ments  of  the  dawn  of  knowledge,  so  in  religion  we 
have  seen  a  progress  from  age  to  age,  and  one  prac- 
tical error  and  evil  after  another  has  been  outgrown. 
Let  us  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  other  or  possi- 
ble course  than  that  onward  and  upward.  Every 
evil  practice  or  institution  is  based  on  some  evil  opin- 
ion or  notion,  and  when  we  proclaim  the  new  idea, 
applicable  to  that  case,  we  overthrow  the  antagonist 
evil  for  ever. 

As  yet  we  have  too  little  faith  in  God,  and  Christ, 
and  man.  To  move  us  powerfully  for  the  promotion 
of  good  ends,  we  must  have  deep  and  living  springs 
of  truth  and  love  and  zeal  in  our  own  hearts.  We  are 
not  enough  aware  that,  if  great  are  our  hinderances, 
great  also  are  our  helps,  and  that,  if  we  are  true  to 
ourselves  and  to  God  in  the  work  of  moral  reforma- 
tion, all  things  else  will  be  true  to  us,  and  will,  as 
by  a  species  of  omnipotence,  work  together  with  us 
for  good.  But  common  sense,  practical  wisdom,  a 
Christian  philosophy,  are  needed  to  direct  and  make 
useful  the  efforts  of  the  most  devoted  and  spiritually- 
minded  laborers  in  this  sphere.  Man  is  essentially 
an  active  being.  He  will  be  occupied,  interested, 
about  something.  And  if  we  call  him  home  from 
the  camp,  we  must  set  him  at  some  work  that  will 
at  once  occupy  and  ennoble  him,  and  enlist  his  affec- 
tions, and  make  him  feel  that  his  laurels,  won  by  a 
fierce  animal  courage,  are  but  worthless  weeds,  com- 
pared with  the  greater  glories  and  honors  of  peace. 
If,  too,  we  win  the  inebriate  from  his  cups,  we  must 


128  THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL. 

provide  innocent  recreations,  and  healthful  occupa- 
tions and  excitements,  and  cheerful  happiness,  that 
shall  in  time  make  him  loathe  the  coarse  revelries  of 
excess.  If,  in  short,  we  take  men  out  of  any  lower 
and  earthly  condition  by  our  reforms,  we  cannot  leave 
them  in  a  vacuum  ;  we  must  furnish  them  with  new 
objects  of  activity,  and  happiness  far  exceeding  the 
old,  and  summon  them  with  a  trumpet  voice  to  the 
blessed  life  and  love  of  the  children  of  God. 

When  we  have  said,  therefore,  "  Overcome  evil 
with  good,"  we  have  proposed  a  rational  and  philo- 
sophical mode  of  Theology,  Education,  Religious 
Culture,  and  Philanthropy  of  the  most  valuable  kind  : 
one  of  those  general  laws  laid  down  by  the  Apostle, 
which,  like  the  principle  of  gravitation  or  the  discov- 
ery of  electricity  in  the  natural  world,  simplifies  a 
thousand  particulars  and  details. 

And,  my  brother  beloved,  this  law  of  action  is  wor- 
thy to  be  considered  by  you  in  your  entrance  again 
upon  the  settled  ministry.  I  am  happy  to  believe 
that  it  has  been  already  in  other  fields  of  labor  a 
principle  of  conduct  and  influence  in  your  labors  for 
the  cause  of  Christ  and  salvation  of  men.  And  with 
yourself  and  your  people  here,  may  it  be  a  sacred 
aim,  not  to  be  overcome  of  evil,  but  to  overcome 
evil  with  good.  It  is  a  rule  of  general  use  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation. 

We,  both  as  ministers  and  people,  are  to  aim  for 
the  positive  truth,  do  the  good  deed,  do  the  best, 
bring  in  the  perfect,  and  then  the  negative,  the  evil, 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    EVIL.  129 

the  imperfect,  will  —  how  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  — 
be  done  away  beyond  all  power  of  reaction  or  recall. 
Rise  to  noble  and  comprehensive  views  of  Christian 
truth,  let  the  light  of  heaven  shine  into  the  soul,  and 
the  darkness  of  error  and  sin  will  flee  away.  The 
Gospel  saves  the  world,  not  mainly  because  it  pro- 
nounces condemnation  on  its  iniquities,  but  chiefly 
because  it  fills  it  with  new  life  and  love,  and  thus 
extinguishes  at  once  the  power  and  inclination  to  sin. 
We  cannot  fight  down  the  darkness  either  in  our- 
selves or  other  men.  We  cannot  light  any  torches 
of  our  own,  that  will  scatter  the  dominion  of  moral 
night  and  illumine  the  world.  But  we  can  open  our 
eyes  to  the  light  of  heaven,  we  can  welcome  the  rev- 
elation from  God  through  Christ,  we  can  fill  our 
souls,  and  help  to  fill  the  souls  of  others,  with  the 
godlike  sentiments  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Love ;  and 
then  shall  we  become  children  of  the  day,  —  a  short 
and  not  unhappy  day  on  earth, —  a  calm,  and  joyous, 
and  everlasting  day  in  heaven. 


DISCOURSE    VII. 


THE  PROMISE.* 

TRAIN   UP   A   CHILD   IN   THE   WAY   HE    SHOULD   GO  ',    AND  WHEN   HE 
IS    OLD,   HE   WILL  NOT   DEPART    FROM   IT.  —  PrOVCrbs   Xxii.  6. 

All  great  truths  commonly  lie  dormant  some 
ages  after  they  are  discovered  or  revealed.  Tardily, 
though  surely,  the  unstable  mind  of  man  is  brought 
to  take  its  true  direction,  as  the  shaken  needle  slowly 
comes  to  rest  on  its  great  magnet.  Hundreds  of 
years  pass  by,  and  the  truth  is  still  unapplied  and 
rusted.  Men  walk  careless  over  it,  as  over  an  un- 
discovered mine  of  diamonds.  Straightway  a  re- 
former is  born,  not  always  a  genius,  and  frequently 
from  some  by-corner  of  the  earth ;  but  the  veil  is 
taken  from  both  his  eye  and  his  heart,  and  he  is  able 
to  see  and  to  feel.  Little  by  little  the  solemn  mel- 
ody of  Truth  breaks  upon  his  ear  and  transports  his 
soul.  Alive  himself  with  the  life  of  truth,  he  makes 
others   live.      He   touches  a    chord   which  vibrates 

*  A  Discourse  delivered  before  the  Cheshire  Sunday  School  Asso- 
ciation. 


THE     PROMISE.  131 

throughout  the  universal  bosom.      Seizing  upon  a 

great  principle  of  nature,  he  electrifies,  he  galvanizes, 

he  magnetizes  his  race.     The  truth  once  recovered 

no  more  dies,  nor  is  buried.    The  reformer  bequeathes 

his  work  and  his  inspiriting  example  to  countless 

heirs,  and  they  to  theirs,  till 

"  Millions  of  souls  shall  feel  their  power, 
And  bear  them  down  to  millions  more." 

Thus  the  rays  from  one  majestic  luminary  shoot 
from  peak  to  peak  of  the  mountain-tops,  until  they 
finally  descend  into  all  the  humble  vales  and  most 
secluded  dwellings,  and  it  is  day.  As  illustrations 
of  this  delay  in  the  application  of  great  laws  to  the 
uses  of  man,  remember  the  distance  between  Coper- 
nicus and  Newton,  between  the  Marquis  of  Water- 
ford  and  Fulton.  And  in  things  spiritual,  how 
long,  how  tediously  long,  were  it  not  the  dread  and 
glorious  march  of  Providence,  between  the  declara- 
tion of  the  text  and  the  announcements  of  Jesus,  on 
one  hand,  and  the  Borromeos,  and  Hannah  Mores, 
and  Robert  Raikeses  on  the  other  I  For  ages  the  re- 
ligious teacher  has  been  wasting  his  good  seed  on  the 
beaten  highway,  —  the  flinty  hearts  of  grown-up  sin- 
ners ;  to-day  he  sows  m  rich  and  mellow  furrows,  — 
in  the  genial  natures  of  children.  The  mind  of  the 
world  understands  at  last,  the  heart  of  the  world 
feels,  the  hands  of  the  world  carry  into  execution, 
this  castaway  and  neglected  truth  of  the  royal 
sage,  —  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should 
go ;  and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 


132  THE     PROMISE. 

Our  generation  has  been  called  unspiritual.  We 
have  been  warned  that  we  were  running  into  mech- 
anism and  materialism.  Nor  has  there  been  want- 
ing some  color  of  reason  to  the  charge.  There  has 
been  such  a  din  respecting  the  mere  shell  of  life, — 
what  shall  we  eat,  and  what  shall  we  drink,  and 
wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed,  and  how  shall  we 
faster  travel  ?  —  that  it  has  caused  a  shudder  lest  the 
divine  life  of  the  soul  was  going  to  be  lost  sight  of, 
or  extinguished.  But  it  would  be  a  craven  spirit 
that  would  despond,  or  despair.  If  there  is  not 
health,  there  are  its  symptoms ;  and  we  have  the 
attendance  of  the  Great  Physician.  If  there  has 
been  an  unexampled  devotion  to  man's  present  and 
perishable  interests,  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  have  not 
been  altogether  wanting.  There  have  been  Ark- 
wrights  and  Fultons,  but  also  Oberlins  and  Tucker- 
mans. 

Not  the  least  of  the  good  auspices  of  the  coming 
age  is  the  Sunday  school.  It  took  its  origin  from 
the  recognition  of  long-buried  truth,  —  the  capacity 
and  the  need  of  man  to  be  religiously  educated  from 
the  cradle  upwards.  Its  bare  existence  is  a  fact  pro- 
phetic of  a  glorious  spiritual  prosperity,  for  it  marks 
the  acknowledgment  and  partial  carrying  out  of  the 
fundamental  rudiments  of  religion,  that  man  has  a 
religious  nature  from  the  beginning,  that  it  demands 
culture,  and  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
divinely  appointed  instrument.  Now  commences  a 
reformation  worthy  the  name,  deep  down  in  man's 


THE     PROMISE.  133 

soul ;  not  a  doffing  of  one  set  of  creeds  or  ceremonies 
to  put  on  another,  —  Pope  Calvin  fot  Pope  Peter,  — 
but  a  regeneration  of  the  human  spirit,  a  flinging 
away  of  the  last  shred  of  tyranny,  the  emancipation 
of  ecclesiastical  slaves,  and  their  introduction  into 
that  "  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free." 
The  truth  has  long  had  a  free  course,  now  it  runs, 
and  anon  it  will  be  glorified. 

After  a  great  invention  or  discovery,  we  think  it 
strange  that  nobody  ever  alighted  upon  it  before,  so 
simple  afterwards  it  seems.  The  ancient  Roman 
almost  invented  the  art  of  printing,  —  why  did  he  ifot 
take  the  last  important  step  ?  Thousands  had  seen 
apples  fall  before  Newton ;  how  wonderful,  that  they 
never  made  his  inference  from  the  fact !  So  in  re- 
gard to  the  Sunday  school.  Wonderful  it  is,  that 
so  simple  a  project,  so  plain  a  duty,  as  that  of  edu- 
cating the  young  systematically  in  the  Gospel,  should 
have  been  the  last  thing  thought  of  in  the  world ! 
Robert  Raikes  himself,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  describ- 
ing the  origin  of  his  illustrious  plan,  modestly  re- 
marks: "The  same  sentiments  would  have  arisen 
in  your  mind,  had  they  happened  to  have  been  called 
forth  as  they  were  suggested  to  me." 

Truly  the  need  of  the  institution  was  urgent ;  we 
wonder  that  necessity  was  not  sooner  the  mother  of 
invention.  Here  were  millions  of  parents,  sleeping 
over  their  solemn  trust.  Here  was  the  great  stream 
of  spiritual  being,  direct  from  God's  throne,  allowed 
to  flow   into  filthy  sewers   and   wasting   channels. 


134  THE    PROMISE. 

Here  was  stainless  childhood,  its  fresh-gushing  love 
uncongealed  by  the  wintry  world,  its  hopes  blooming 
like  Eden  before  the  fall ;  here  was  generous,  elastic, 
credulous  youth,  —  exposed  without  any  shield  to 
snares  without  and  treachery  within.  Practised 
wickedness  was  industriously  distilling  poison  into 
their  believing  ears  and  tender  hearts.  Here  were 
young  immortals  —  their  souls  made  for  religion,  the 
abiding  interests  of  their  whole  being,  from  the  first 
gasp  of  infancy  for  ever,  religious  interests  —  who 
grew  up  without  God,  who  never  approached  the 
Great  Friend  of  children  at  his  sweet  and  gentle  in- 
vitation. Their  beautiful  affections,  ever  rising  up 
and  imploring  sympathy,  are  coldly  repulsed  and 
driven  back  into  the  timid  bosom,  to  pine  alone. 
The  ten  thousand  doubts  and  questions,  and  fears 
and  hopes,  which  swell  the  sighing  heart  nigh  to 
bursting,  and  many  a  time  fill  the  young  eye  with 
tears,  —  these  thronging,  pressing  inquiries,  which 
threaten  to  bend  down  and  break  the  tender,  over- 
burdened stalk  of  youth  with  the  dark  enigmas  of  its 
existence,  must  go  unanswered,  and  prey  upon  the 
solitary  breast.  It  was  (alas !  it  is)  a  sorrowful  sight, 
yet  how  common,  to  behold  a  beautiful  young  crea- 
ture, fresh  from  a  Father  of  love,  straying  on  at  its 
own  wild  will,  chasing  the  butterflies  of  its  own 
fancy,  now  visited  with  thrills  of  ecstasy  and  now 
with  awful  fears,  but  still  wandering  on  amidst  the 
pitfalls  and  precipices  of  life,  unguided  and  un- 
guarded.    Soon  the  storm  and  the  night  may  come 


THE     PROMISE.  135 

on,  and  its  home  be  lost  for  ever.  It  is  a  melting 
story,  that  of  the  babes  left  in  the  woods  by  him 
who  should  have  been  their  protector.  But  ought  it 
to  be  less  affecting  to  see  many  children  spiritually 
deserted  in  the  devious  moral  wilderness  of  life,  with 
no  hand  to  lead  them  out  of  its  dark  mazes,  with  no 
arm  to  defend  them  from  the  wild  beasts  prowling 
therein  ? 

Out  of  this  need  arose  the  Sunday  school :  out  of 
this  need,  more  clearly  seen  and  felt,  is  to  arise  its 
improvement  and  growing  efficiency.  We  were  liv- 
ing not  long  ago  in  the  skirts  of  the  Dark  Ages  ;  we 
have  not  yet  fully  emerged.  But  we  are  coming  to 
the  light ;  our  watchword  is,  "  Forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those 
things  which  are  before,  we  press  toward  the  mark 
for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus."  Much  has  been  done,  much  is  doing,  more 
remains  to  be  done. 

"  The  harvest  is  passed,  the  summer  is  ended,"  and 
we  are  assembled,  my  friends,  to  give  account  to  one 
another  of  our  stewardship,  to  digest  our  experience 
into  principles,  our  knowledge  into  wisdom,  and  to 
animate  each  of  our  hearts  by  the  aggregate  sym- 
pathy of  all.  If  the  Sunday-school  system  is  ever 
to  be  improved,  it  must  be  by  the  patient  induction 
of  facts ;  by  the  comparison  of  opinion  with  opinion, 
of  experience  with  experience ;  by  the  action  of  mind 
upon  mind,  in  meetings,  reports,  addresses.  True 
philosophy   in   relation   to  all   subjects  is  of  slow 


136 


THE     PROMISE. 


growth,  and  still  slower  application.  The  capabili- 
ties of  this  institution  have  not  yet  been  wholly  fath- 
omed and  evolved.  And  if  we  are  to  be  carried  for- 
ward in  this  evangelical  enterprise  to  higher  knowl- 
edge and  livelier  interest,  it  must  be  in  a  considerable 
degree  by  bringing  ourselves  more  into  sympathy 
with  each  other  on  the  subject.  My  faith,  said  Cole- 
ridge, is  infinitely  increased  the  moment  another 
joins  his  assent.  We  are  confederates  and  fellow- 
workers  in  a  great  and  good  cause,  and  it  cannot 
but  be  highly  serviceable  for  us  to  meet  and  mingle 
our  thoughts,  affections,  and  prayers,  and  to  pledge 
ourselves  to  new  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  God  and 
his  Son. 

The  spirit  of  the  text  is  adapted  to  cheer  us  in  our 
exertions  to  educate  the  young  in  the  Gospel.  It 
pronounces  our  duty,  and  promises  to  fulfil  our 
hopes.  It  teaches  us  to  look  forward  to  future  years 
for  the  fruits  of  our  labors,  and  announces  that  law 
of  habit  which  secures  to  age  the  acquisitions  of 
youth.  "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should 
go ;  and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 

I  look  around  and  ponder  our  situation,  the  con- 
dition of  our  Sunday  schools,  the  greatness  of  the 
cause,  the  interests  depending,  the  attention  of  parents 
and  teachers  and  pupils  and  clergymen,  and  I  have 
asked  myself,  What  do  we  most  want  ?  Wherein 
are  we  most  deficient  ?  From  the  study  of  my  own 
heart,  and  the  confessions  and  conduct  of  others,  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  what  is  most  im- 


THE    PROMISE.  137 

periously  needed  is  enlarged  and  enkindled  Faith. 
Here  is  ever  our  greatest  want,  our  saddest  deficiency, 
that  we  lack  that  very  thing  on  which  the  whole 
system  of  religious  education,  hinges,  and  around 
which  it  revolves.  Soon  would  other  evils  be  reme- 
died, and  other  obstacles  surmounted,  were  only  this 
principle  enthroned  in  living  energy  in  our  hearts. 
We  totter,  we  fall,  because  we  do  not  with  childlike 
confidence  take  hold  of  that  Mighty  Hand,  stretched 
forth  to  lead  us  to  success.  We  distrust  ourselves, 
we  distrust  others,  and  in  both  we  are  guilty  of  the 
worst  of  all,  distrusting  God.  We  selfishly  fear  we 
shall  not  succeed,  as  if  a  Wiser  and  a  Mightier  than 
we  were  not  presiding  at  the  great  helm.  Hemmed 
in  by  the  mists  and  shadows  of  earth,  enfeebled  in  our 
capacities  of  belief  and  action  by  our  moral  delin- 
quencies and  timid  indolence,  we  are  prone  to  be- 
come cold  and  faithless  respecting  the  stupendous 
realities  of  the  spiritual  world. 

In  this  state  of  mind  are  involved  most  of  the 
difficulties  we  lament  in  ourselves,  or  others.  We 
complain  of  a  want  of  interest  in  parents  in  the  spir- 
itual good  of  their  children.  But  why  are  parents 
uninterested?  Because  they  do  not  believe  in  the 
nature,  wants,  and  sublime  destiny  of  their  little 
ones.  We  are  grieved  at  the  insensibility  of  teach- 
ers. But  why  are  they  insensible?  Because  they 
have  not  yet  been  kindled  with  a  living  sense  of 
spiritual  things,  they  do  not  believe  in  the  mighty 
interests  of  the  soul,  soaring  infinitely  beyond  the 
12  • 


138  THE    PROMISE. 

interests  of  the  body.  Why  is  the  pastor  —  mourn- 
ful apathy  I  —  sometimes  found  indifferent  to  the 
religious  training  of  the  children  of  his  flock  ?  He 
too  is  tainted  with  the  prevalent  unbelief.  Why  are 
even  the  children  so  often  heedless  of  the  use  of  their 
priceless  opportunities  to  "  get  wisdom  "  ?  They 
disbelieve  the  frozen  lessons  of  their  elders.  All  lack 
faith,  all  need  it,  as  the  one  thing  needful.  Only 
infuse  one  particle  of  genuine,  living  faith,  and  we 
live.  The  valley  of  dry  bones  swarms  with  uprisen 
men.  The  mustard-seed  expands  into  the  tree.  No 
more  we  falter,  no  more  drivel,  no  more  sleep.  We 
have  faith.  Faith  links  us  with  the  Almighty.  We 
are  invincible  through  Him.  No  longer  we  handle 
the  unspeakable  interests  of  the  soul  with  listless- 
ness.  Our  minds  kindle  and  dilate  with  the  solemn 
grandeur  of  the  work.  The  great  deep  is  broken 
up,  and  with  the  line  of  faith  we  fathom  its  abysses. 
Not  more  keenly  does  imagination  fix  on  the  glisten- 
ing star,  and  pursue  it  through  the  awful  depths  of 
heaven,  until  it  has  expanded  into  a  mighty  globe, 
than  does  faith,  looking  profoundly  into  the  soul, 
and  afar  into  eternity,  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  arch- 
angelic  destiny  of  the  little  child.  Faith  alters  to- 
tally the  complexion  of  religious  education ;  from  a 
task  converts  it  into  a  delightful  privilege,  from  a 
non-essential  into  the  all-essential,  and  sinks  all  mis- 
givings and  obstacles  in  the  sublimity  of  the  cause, 
the  promises  of  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  % 


THE     PROMISK.  139 

This  faith  must  have  two  branches, —  a  confidence 
in  human  nature  as  capable  of  receiving  religion, 
and  a  confidence  in  the  Gospel  as  the  divine  instru- 
ment of  its  culture. 

1.  We  have  too  little  faith  in  the  child.  Children 
are  common ;  are  often  perversely  educated ;  and 
sometimes  far  gone  in  vice.  Our  trust  in  their  ca- 
pacities is  shaken.  We  almost  unconsciously  attrib- 
ute the  fault  more  to  them  than  to  their  parents, 
more  to  their  nature  than  to  their  education.  But  it 
is  a  mistake.  Our  notions  on  this  point  savor  more 
of  impiety  towards  the  Creator,  than  we  may  be 
aware.  By  distrusting  the  child,  what  do  we  but 
cast  discredit  on  the  word  and  promises  of  God,  and 
blaspheme  his  handiwork  ?  I  read  among  the  golden 
treasures  of  his  revealed  truth,  "  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image  "  ;  "  God  hath  made  man  upright." 
I  see  the  Saviour  smiling  on  little  children,  and  say- 
ing, "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  " ;  "  Verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  be  converted,  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  On  these  and  other  descriptions  of  the 
sonship  of  man  to  God,  and  the  capacity  of  human 
nature  in  childhood  for  religion,  we  plant  ourselves 
immovably.  We  defer  to  no  scruples,  we  hold 
parley  with  no  doubts.  Though  the  worldly  wise 
may  ridicule  our  fond  credulity,  though  a  dark  creed 
may  stigmatize  us  as  heretics ;  we  must  never,  never 
let  go  this  sheet-anchor  of  the  Sunday  school,  that 
children  are  by  their  very  nature  members  of  the 


140  THE    PROMISE. 

kingdom  of  heaven,  and  never  would  be  driven  out 
of  paradise,  the  "  heaven  "  that  "  lies  about  them 
in  their  infancy,"  provided  they  were  rightly  and  re- 
ligiously educated. 

Children  are  common.  If  we  do  not  find  here 
one  source  of  our  feeble  faith,  we  do  find  one  cause 
of  our  indifference.  We  become  habituated  to  them. 
They  are  no  novelty.  We  see  others  slighting  them, 
and  we  soon  learn  the  dangerous  habit  ourselves. 
Wrapped  up  in  our  supposed  wisdom,  and  hot  in 
the  chase  of  our  selfish  interests,  we  overlook  these 
new  messengers  from  the  spiritual  world.  We  for- 
get who  they  are,  and  why  they  have  come,  and  who 
has  sent  them.  We  heed  not  the  power  with  which 
each  deed  and  word  of  ours  tells  upon  their  forming 
characters,  as  the  hard  seal  upon  the  flowing  wax. 
They  tabernacle  in  houses  of  clay,  and  we  forget 
their  immortality  as  we  do  our  own.  We  are  not 
alive  to  the  sublime  reality  in  respect  simply  to  the 
duration  of  their  existence,  that  it  is  henceforth  co- 
eval with  the  Eternal  Father.  And  furthermore,  we 
too  little  realize  that  that  stupendous  and  awful 
range  and  immensity  of  being  is  to  be  virtuous  and 
happy,  or  wicked  and  miserable,  very  much  as  the 
right  or  wrong  direction  is  given  to  the  unfolding 
energies  here.  If  we  should  once  place  our  eye  at 
the  telescope  of  faith,  and  see  the  ages  upon  ages, 
the  worlds  after  worlds,  the  heavens  above  heavens, 
through  which  the  child  may  soar  towards  God,  we 
should  be  startled  out  of  our  stone-blind  indifference 


THE    PROMISE.  141 

to  its  spiritual  education  into  some  just  feeling  of 
our  responsibility,  and  our  glorious  privilege,  as  its 
guardians  and  teachers. 

2.  But,  again,  it  is  requisite  to  usefulness  and 
success  in  this  cause,  that  we  heartily  believe  in  the 
instrument  as  well  as  the  material  and  the  subject, 
in  the  Gospel  as  well  as  in  the  child.  We  must  see 
the  wondrous  affinity  between  the  truth  of  God  and 
the  spirits  he  has  created.  We  must  see  how  wisely 
and  beautifully  the  Gospel  is  fitted  to  man's  consti- 
tution and  wants;  that  not  more  exquisite  is  the 
formation  of  the  eye  to  receive  the  light,  than  is  the 
moral  nature  of  man,  before  it  is  warped  by  actual 
transgressions,  to  receive,  love,  and  practise  the 
Christian  religion.  With  the  undoubting  mind  of 
the  husbandman,  we  are  to  sow  good  seed  in  a  good 
soil.  We  need  to  enter  into  the  deep  meaning  of 
those  figures  which  liken  the  Gospel  to  bread,  satis- 
fying hunger;  to  water,  quenching  thirst;  to  light, 
illuminating  the  dark  world  ;  to  life,  hidden  from  the 
sensual. 

Some  Indians  of  John  Eliot's  time,  and  who  had 
been  under  his  instruction,  being  asked  how  they 
knew  the  Scripture  to  be  the  word  of  God,  re- 
plied, "  Because  they  did  find  that  it  did  change 
their  hearts,  and  wrought  in  them  wisdom  and  hu- 
mility." This  striking  answer  indicated  that  these 
untutored  children  of  the  wilderness  had  arrived  at  a 
sense  of  the  fitness  of  the  Gospel  to  human  nature 
and  wants,  which  it  would  be  happy  if  the  Christian 
of  civilized  life  always  enjoyed. 


142 


THE    PROMISE. 


We  must  believe  that  the  truths  of  Christianity, 
as  they  are  taught  in  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus, 
are  in  nice  harmony  with  the  love,  trust,  imagination, 
spirituality,  innocence,  of  children.  The  parables, 
the  miracles,  the  dialogues,  of  the  Gospels,  could  not 
have  been  more  happily  adapted  to  the  young,  if 
they  had  been  expressly  composed  for  their  instruc- 
tion. We  must  realize  and  act  upon  this  view. 
We  must  teach  without  one  shadow  of  apprehen- 
sion lest  the  bread  that  came  down  from  heaven 
will  not  feed  the  hungering  soul.  We  must  see  that 
the  Gospe]  is  the  express  instrument,  appointed  by 
God,  to  educate  the  young;  that  it  is  meat  and 
drink,  light  and  life,  to  their  expanding  natures. 

Again,  we  want  a  stronger  confidence  in  the  suc- 
cess of  all  well-meant  and  faithful  efforts  to  bring  the 
Gospel  into  living  contact  with  the  undefiled  soul. 
It  is  true  we  should  shun  the  extreme  of  presump- 
tion ;  but  we  ought  never  to  doubt,  that  whatever  we 
rightly  do  in  this  cause  sooner  or  later  has  its  due 
effect.  It  may  be  objected  to  what  has  now  been 
said  of  the  duty  of  faith  in  the  child,  and  faith  in  the 
Gospel  as  the  God-given  instrument  to  save  and 
bless  it,  that  those  who  in  their  youth  were  placed 
under  the  best  religious  influences,  the  children  of 
the  most  exemplary  Christians,  have  often  sunk  into 
vice  and  crime,  whilst  those  who  were  born  and  nur- 
tured in  the  haunts  of  wickedness  have  grown  up 
lights  in  the  Church  and  benefactors  to  their  species. 
In  this  objection  is  couched  much  of  that  weakness 


THE    PROMISK.  143 

of  faith  of  which  complaint  has  now  been  made. 
Parents  and  teachers  are  most  unhappily  and  falsely 
led  to  imagine,  that  it  is  a  matter  pretty  much  of 
chance,  after  all,  what  characters  the  young  form. 
They  see  wheat  sown,  and  tares  reaped  ;  and  tares 
sown,  and  wheat  reaped.  They  know  not  what  to 
trust,  what  to  abide  by.  They  float  hither  and 
thither,  at  the  capricious  mercy  of  every  **  wind  of 
doctrine."  O  that  they  might  see  the  truth  in  this 
matter !  O  that  they  would  believe  with  uncon- 
querable trust,  what  man's  nature  and  God's  word 
conspire  to  teach,  that  no  word,  no  effort,  no  teach- 
ing, no  prayer,  can  by  any  possibility  be  lost  in  this 
glorious  work  I  Let  them  remember,  that  we  anchor 
ourselves  on  the  promises  of  God,  that  we  stand  on 
the  Rock  of  Ages,  in  our  confidence  that  our  labors 
to  train  up  the  young  in  "  the  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion of  the  Lord  "  will  not  be  frustrated. 

Still,  it  will  be  said,  we  may  not  succeed.  We 
may  not,  and  why  ?  Because  of  some  faial  leakage  ; 
because  we  undo  in  one  way  all  we  do  in  another ; 
because  our  example  mocks  our  precepts  ;  because 
the  bad  company  abroad,  into  which  our  children 
fall,  neutralizes  the  good  influences  of  home  and 
the  Sunday  school,  and  we  are  convicted  of  the  folly 
of  pouring  water  into  a  sieve  with  the  idle  hope  of 
filling  it.  We  may  not  succeed  for  the  present, — 
who  is  sower  and  reaper  the  same  day  ?  —  but  we 
should  sow,  assured  that  in  due  time  we  shall  reap, 
if  we  faint  not     Encouragements  from  our  nature. 


144  THE    PROMISE. 

from  human  experience,  from  the  Holy  Word, 'bid 
US  go  on  fearlessly,  zealously,  perseveringly,  and 
however  forlorn  our  hope  may  for  the  present  appear, 
we  are  never  to  despair  in  our  exertions  to  educate, 
save,  and  bless  -those  who  have  God  for  their  Fa- 
ther and  immortality  for  their  lifetime.  "  If  good 
seed,"  said  Robert  Raikes,  "  be  sown  in  the  mind 
at  an  early  period  of  human  life,  though  it  show  it- 
self not  again  for  many  years,  it  may  please  God  at 
some  future  period  to  cause  it  to  spring  up  and 
bring  forth  a  plentiful  harvest."  John  Bunyan,  John 
Newton,  Richard  Cecil,  and  many  others,  are  striking 
illustrations  of  the  remark.  Out  of  unsightly  shrubs, 
they  grew  up  beautiful  and  fruitful  trees  in  the  gar- 
den of  God. 

But  it  is  only  in  comparatively  few  cases  that 
we  must  hope,  because  we  dare  not  yield  to  despair. 
In  the  majority  of  instances,  just  in  the  proportion 
that  our  labors  are  abundant,  abundant  will  be  our 
rewards.  A  systematic,  evangelical,  and  universal 
training  of  the  young  in  the  way  they  should  go, 
would  produce  the  most  excellent  and  happy  results 
in  literature,  society,  and  religion.  In  literature, 
when  genius  shall  be  baptized  into  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  socie- 
ty, w^hen  brother's  heart  shall  be  knit  to  brother's 
heart,  and  there  shall  be  one  pulse  of  love ;  when 
we  shall  carry  forth  to  all  nations  the  balance  of 
justice  in  one  hand,  and  the  olive-branch  of  peace 
in   the  other.     Voices  from  the  great  Western  Ca- 


THE    PROMISE.  145 

naan,  voices  from  the  far  isles  of  the  sea,  voices  from 
a  thousand  centuries  to  come,  thunder  in  our  pars 
with  mighty  tones  the  solemn  obligation  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  to  educate  their  children  in  the  Gos- 
pel. With  accents  thrilling  as  the  trump  of  the 
archangel,  they  command  us  to  prepare  for  a  state 
of  human  welfare,  more  glorious  than  ever  charmed 
the  poet's  imagination,  or  kindled  the  prophet's  eye. 
Most  blessed  too  must  be  the  effects  on  religion  of 
this  religious  education  of  all  children.  No  more 
the  dead  letter,  but  the  living  spirit ;  no  more  a  ster- 
eotyped faith  and  a  traditional  piety,  but  Christian 
inquiry  and  growth  without  pause  or  limit.  The 
jangling  of  the  sects  also  will  be  melted  into  an  ex- 
pansive charity  as  the  coronation  of  Jesus,  King  of 
mankind,  draws  near.  Then  shall  man's  state  of 
probation  bear  some  remote  resemblance  to  his  state 
of  fruition.  Is  it  too  much  to  say,  that  the  universal 
and  increasing  interest  in  the  religious  education  of 
children  is  a  bright  augury,  predicting  this  advance- 
ment as  probable,  as  certain  ?  Ill  would  it  become 
us  to  despond,  when  prophets  desired  to  see  these 
things,  and  desired  in  vain,  yet  suffered  not  their 
faith  to  waver.  It  would  show  but  a  weak  trust  in 
God  to  despair  of  the  cause  of  Christ  now,  when  he 
despaired  not  of  it  on  the  Cross. 

No  interest  ought  to  have  a  deeper  hold  upon  the 
hearts  of  parents,  than  the  religious  culture  of  their 
children.  They  are  the  natural  instructors,  but  they 
may  call  in  the  assistance  of  coadjutors  in  the  moral 

13 


146  THE    PROMISE. 

and  religious,  as  well  as  the  intellectual,  education 
of  their  offspring.  Permit  me  to  inquire  of  those  who 
sustain  the  parental  relation,  whether  they  are  sensi- 
ble of  the  uncalculated  responsibility  that  rests  upon 
them,  to  provide  for  their  interesting  young  charge 
all,  and  the  best,  means  and  appliances  to  a  thorough 
Christian  education.  Do  they  see,  that,  whilst  they 
are  laying  up  money,  their  children  are  treasuring  up 
characters  for  eternity  ?  Alas  for  that  father  or 
mother  who  is  more  set  on  riches  than  education,  who 
is  laboring  more  anxiously  to  amass  great  wealth  to 
bequeathe  to  a  bereaved  family,  than  to  impart  to 
them  the  priceless  jewel  of  a  Christian  spirit!  Alas 
for  that  parent  who  thinks  himself  absolved  from  his 
duty  of  instructing  his  sons  and  daughters  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Sunday  school!  O,  let 
him  see  how  all  is  needed,  and  is  blessed  to  the 
child's  good,  —  precept  at  school,  example  at  home, 
and  prayer  and  love  everywhere  !  Let  him  bear  it 
ever  in  remembrance,  how  much  good  he  can  do,  and 
how  much  evil  avert,  by  faithfully  training  up  his 
children  to  fear  and  love  God,  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments. Soon  those  now  at  the  breast  will  be 
in  the  marts  of  trade  and  the  workshops  of  labor ; 
those  now  at  school  will  become  the  fathers  and 
mothers  of  families,  holding  various  offices  of  trust, 
responsibility,  and  distinction  in  tlie  various  educa- 
tional, political,  and  religious  institutions  of  the  land ; 
the  glory  or  the  disgrace  of  their  friends,  shaping 
to  freedom  and  virtue,  or  corruption  and  ruin,  the 


THE    PROMISE.  147 

changeful  destinies  of  their  country,  putting  back- 
ward or  forward  the  mighty  interests  of  the  human 
race.  How  all-important  that  they  should  now  im- 
bibe that  life-giving  truth,  which  saves  from  error 
and  sin  ! 

Let  teachers  too  be  reminded  of  the  importance, 
the  delicacy,  the  grandeur,  of  their  work.  Cherish 
faith  in  the  child,  faith  in  the  Gospel,  and  faith  in 
your  own  usefulness  under  the  good  favor  of  God. 
"  Be  not  faithless,  but  believing."  Live  as  you  teach, 
that  you  may  not  overthrow  your  instructions  by 
your  ill  example.  Vivify  your  zeal  by  prayer,  and 
cultivate  the  tenderness  of  a  mother's  self-sacrificing 
love  for  your  pupils.  Remember  that  they  are  the 
hope  of  their  country,  the  hope  of  the  Church,  the 
hope  of  the  world.  Esteem  it  not  as  a  task,  but 
rejoice  in  it  as  a  precious  privilege,  that  you  can 
confer  the  greatest  good  upon  others,  whilst  you  are 
augmenting  that  good  in  yourselves.  Be  devoutly 
thankful,  my  friends,  that  it  falls  to  your  lot  to  join 
alliance  with  the  Saviour  and  the  Father  of  tnen,  in 
the  sublime  employment  of  conducting  human  beings 
to  honor,  glory,  and  immortality ;  that  you  have  it 
in  your  power  to  give  not  merely  a  cup  of  cold  water, 
but  the  waters  of  life  everlasting,  to  these  little  ones. 
Labor  evermore  with  an  elevating  and  strengthening 
consciousness  of  the  dignity  and  the  excellence  of 
your  calling.  What  work,  this  side  of  heaven,  can  be 
so  acceptable  to  God,  as  that  of  lending  a  brotherly, 
a  sisterly  hand,  to  aid  the  young  and  inexperienced 


148  THE    PROMISE. 

in  preparing  for  life  here  and  forever  ;  as  that  of  ele- 
vating them  to  their  heritage  of  love,  liberty,  and 
eternal  life;  as  that  of  starting  into  a  living  and  har- 
monious growth  the  folded  germs  of  a  deathless 
spirit?  They  have  not  yet  crossed  the  Rubicon  of 
lawless  ambition,  nor  drank  the  Lethe  waters  of 
sensual  indulgence,  nor  wished,  like  Midas,  that 
everything  they  touched  might  be  turned  into  gold. 
They  are  pure ;  it  is  your  happy  privilege  to  aid 
them  in  becoming  positively  virtuous  and  holy.  To 
provide  these  young  immortals,  but  lately  launched 
into  this  tempestuous  world,  wdth  the  compass  of 
religion,  and  the  anchor  of  a  heavenly  hope,  is  the 
most  exalted  labor  in  which  men  or  angels  can  share. 
Yours  also  is  a  "reward  beyond  this  world  and 
time."  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away  sooner 
than  the  good  you  do  be  effaced  from  the  tablets  of 
the  human  soul,  or  the  records  of  heaven.  The 
blazing  sapphires  of  the  sky  shall  be  extinguished 
in  utter  darkness,  before  the  fruits  of  your  Sunday- 
school  instruction  shall  perish,  or  cease  to  afford  you 
the  refined  satisfaction  of  doing  the  will  of  God. 

My  younger  hearers  and  friends  will  recollect 
those  words  of  our  Saviour,  —  "unto  whomsoever 
much  is  given,  of  him  shall  be  much  required."  As 
your  parents  and  teachers  have  done  much  for  you, 
you  will  feel  that  your  obligations  are  great.  You 
will  remember  to  use  your  precious  opportunities 
faithfully  ;  you  will  seek  to  make  those  returns  to 
your  friends  and  benefactors  which  they  most  love, 


THE    PROMISE.  149 

the  returns  of  good  characters,  upright  lives,  Chris- 
tian spirits.  Be  entreated  now,  in  this  fair  and  glo- 
rious prime  of  your  days,  to  give  your  hearts  to  those 
things  which  never  decay,  to  those  beings  who  will 
never  deceive  you.  Remember  your  Saviour  and 
Father  now,  before  your  love  has  been  lost  upon 
things  that  are  worthless  and  treacherous.  Bear  it 
in  mind,  that  there  is  no  sight  on  earth  so  sweet  and 
beautiful  as  an  obedient  and  virtuous  child.  There 
is  no  flower  that  opens  in  spring,  there  is  no  bird 
that  sings  in  summer,  there  is  no  star  that  shines  in 
heaven,  there  is  no  diamond,  sparkling  from  the 
mines,  so  delightful  to  look  upon,  as  an  affectionate 
and  religious  child. 

"  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Nothing 
gladdens  a  teacher  so  much  as  docile  and  virtuous 
pupils.  They  are  his  "  crown  of  rejoicing."  Noth- 
ing makes  a  parent's  heart  sing  for  joy,  like  a  good 
son  or  daughter.  The  father  thinks  his  labors  well 
repaid.  The  mother  forgets  all  her  cares  and  watch- 
ings,  and  points  to  her  dutiful  children,  as  the  Ro- 
man lady  is  related  to  have  done  in  ancient  times, 
and  exclaims,  "  Behold  my  jewels ! "  God  from 
heaven  looks  with  complacency  upon  the  youth 
who  love  him  and  keep  his  commandments,  and  will 
in  his  good  time  take  them  to  his  celestial  man- 
sions. 


13 


DISCOURSE    VIII 


THE  SOUL'S  WANT  OF  GOD. 

MY  HBABT  AND  MT  FLESH  CRIET^  OUT  FOR  THE  LIVING  GOD. — 

Psalm  Ixxxiv.  2. 

The  chief  want  of  man  is  God.  He  has  various 
faculties  and  senses,  each  of  which  craves  its  specific 
and  proper  good,  the  eye  light,  the  stomach  food,  the 
ear  sounds,  the  brain  thought,  the  conscience  right, 
the  heart  love.  But  the  cry  of  the  whole  human 
being,  the  need  of  the  whole  united  powers,  is  the 
Supreme  Good.  Both  heart  and  flesh  cry  out  for 
the  living  God ;  the  one  in  its  frailty  claiming  a 
support  to  lean  upon,  and  the  other  in  its  far-reach- 
ing affections  and  aspirations  a  never-ending  and 
infinite  excellence.  The  soul  is  for  God,  and  God 
for  the  soul.  What  God  hath  joined  together,  let 
not  man  put  asunder.  Many  are  unhappy  and  do 
not  know  the  cause  of  their  unhappiness,  but  the 
deep  and  constant  cause,  below  all  others,  is  the 
absence  from  the  true  light  of  life.  They  may  eat, 
drink,  and  amass  wealth,  and  satisfy  the  intellect 
with  knowledge,  but  these  desires  are  not  the  deep- 


151 


est.  They  are  on  the  surface.  The  heart  cries  out 
for  something  more,  and  better. 

The  Apostle  speaks  of  living  "  without  God  and 
without  hope  in  the  world."  To  live  without  God 
is  to  live  without  hope.  We  can  have  no  true  hope 
but  in  him.  The  soul  trembles  till  it  points  to  its 
eternal  pole-star  in  the  heavens.  It  is  restless  until 
it  finds  rest  in  the  All-sufficient  Being.  Without 
God  all  is  dark  without,  and  all  is  in  disorder  with- 
in. Desert  him,  and  we  exile  ourselves  to  a  Sahara 
without  verdure*  and  to  a  Siberia  without  heat. 
Disobey  him,  and  we  cut  ourselves  off  from  the 
protection  of  those  laws  which  are  the  only  safe- 
guard of  our  being.  We  may  have  every  other 
blessing,  and  may  say,  with  the  Laodiceans  of  old, 
"  We  are  rich  and  increased  with  goods,  and  have 
need  of  nothing  "  ;  but  we  are  really  "  wretched  and 
miserable  and  poor  and  blind  and  naked." 

"  Give  us  this  bread  of  life,"  cries  the  soul.  The 
orphan  child  is  always  in  search  for  his  Father.  With 
restless  desires,  with  dumb  and  piteous  cries,  with 
wanderings  into  far  countries,  with  eager  chase  after 
pleasures  and  vanities,  man  journeys  through  life, 
but  he  spends  his  strength  for  naught,  when  he  has 
not  secured  this  main  interest.  "  God,"  cry  the  na- 
tions, —  "give  us  the  knowledge  of  him  "  ;  and  they 
agonize,  build  temples,  worship  idols,  torment  their 
own  bodies,  make  painful  pilgrimages,  until  the  true 
light  shines  upon  them,  and  they  learn  to  love,  wor- 
ship, and  serve  him,  the  one  living  and  true  God. 


152 


The  superficial  desires  of  the  body  may  be  satis- 
fied and  put  to  rest ;  but  the  yearning  of  the  soul 
after  its  proper  good  is  enduring.  All  through  life, 
in  vivid  joy,  in  blank  indifference,  in  sharp  grief,  in 
danger,  sickness,  sudden  changes,  in  all  emergencies, 
our  whole  nature  —  heart  and  flesh  —  feels  after 
God,  if  happily  it  may  find  him.  The  old  English 
poet  truly  said,  — 

"  Unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  mean  a  thing  is  man ! " 

Says  Leighton,  "  God  hath  suited  every  creature 
he  hath  made  with  a  convenient  good  to  which  it 
tends,  and  in  the  obtainment  of  which  it  rests  and 
is  satisfied.  Now  in  this  is  the  excellency  of  man, 
that  he  is  made  capable  of  a  communion  with  his 
Master,  and  because  capable  of  it,  unsatisfied  without 
it;  the  soul  (so  to  speak),  being  cut  out  to  that  large- 
ness, cannot  be  filled  with  less.  It  is  made  for  Him, 
and  is  therefore  still  restless  till  it  meet  with  Him." 

1.  The  first  step  in  this  answer  to  the  deepest 
want  of  human  nature  is  the  conviction  that  God 
is,  —  that  God  lives.  Heart  and  flesh  cry  ;  where  is 
the  response?  Joyful  is  the  moment  in  the  soul's 
experience  when  the  reality  of  God's  being  comes 
over  us  with  its  full  power.  Revelation  does  not 
undertake  to  prove  to  us  the  being  of  God,  but  it 
implies  it  throughout,  and  that  is  the  most  persua- 
sive way  of  teaching  it.  It  does  not  argue  it,  and 
therefore  it  does  not  arouse  opposition.  Faith  is  the 
first  condition  of  all  religious  good,  not  cold  intellect- 


153 


ual  assent,  but  believing  with  the  whole  heart  unto 
righteousness.  We  see  him  not  by  sense,  but  we 
know  him  by  the  soul.  Knowledge  is  larger  and 
truer  than  sight.  We  see  not  a  pain,  but  we  feel  it. 
We  see  not  the  virtues  and  characters  of  our  friends, 
but  they  are  among  the  most  real  things  to  us.  We 
see  not  foreign  countries,  but  they  lie  clear  and  well 
defined  in  the  domain  of  our  knowledge.  Mathemat- 
ics demonstrate  their  truths  to  our  intellectual  con- 
victions. We  cannot  but  receive  them.  But  the 
truths  of  morals  and  faith  rest  on  a  broader  basis  of 
our  whole  spiritual,  as  well  as  intellectual  nature. 
They  take  the  deeper  form,  not  of  convictions,  but 
of  persuasions,  not  so  definite  and  decided,  but  more 
comprehensive  and  satisfying  to  the  whole  man. 
When  children  wish  to  describe  anything  as  par- 
ticularly good  and  excellent,  they  say  that  it  is  real. 
The  first  need  of  the  soul  is  to  feel  that  God  is  real, 
—  the  great  reality  and  essence  of  all  things.  And 
if  sin  had  not  shut  up  and  darkened  the  windows  of 
our  being,  this  gracious  light  would  flow  in  on  every 
side.  Every  moment  God  would  arrive  at  the  soul 
in  his  blessings,  —  sun,  rain,  and  food,  and  home 
with  its  group  of  loving  ones,  and  all  nature  and 
society,  would  reflect  him  in  upon  the  inmost  heart 
in  bright  and  glorious  colors,  and  in  awful  distinct- 
ness and  power. 

2.  Then  we  are  to  feel  that  He  is  Present  and 
Living.  The  belief  of  not  a  few  seems  to  be  in  a  past 
God,  a  deceased,  departed  Deity,  and  the  world  as  a 


154 


huge  skeleton  out  of  which  all  the  soul  has  gone, 
not  an  abode  for  the  indwelling  Power,  but  the  ruins 
of  his  former  stately  palace.  But  he  has  not  made 
the  world,  and  then  retired  from  it.  He  is  not 
an  absentee  proprietor.  He  is  the  present  Creator, 
the  living'  God,  as  on  the  world's  first  morning. 
He  dyes  the  flower,  and  ripens  the  corn.  Laws 
are  but  his  uniform  modes  of  working.  Forces  are 
but  the  heavings  of  the  indwelling  Almightiness. 
He  is,  and  he  is  present.  Here,  to-day,  in  these 
sweet  heavens  filled  with  holy  light,  and  in  this , 
earth  garbed  in  beautiful  plants  and  colored  with  rich 
hues,  and  in  this  air  on  which  the  Sabbath  hymn  is 
borne,  a  solemn  presence  broods,  —  an  inconceivable, 
and  sublime,  and  mysterious  Being  is  round  about 
us.  How  it  is,  we  cannot  know  or  explain.  We 
cannot  explain  any  more  how  it  is  loe  are  here,  in 
these  bodies.  We  only  know  it  is  so.  God  is  a 
greater  mystery.  The  finite  can  only  catch  a  dis- 
tant glimpse  of  the  Infinite.  The  fact  is  the  impor- 
tant thing  to  feel,  not  to  know  the  how.  The  Great 
Eye,  looking  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  is  in  every 
place,  as  our  childish  books  taught  us.  But  we 
should  be  in  error  to  imagine  that  presence  one 
of  scrutiny  and  watching  alone,  to  detect  our  sins, 
and  spy  out  our  weaknesses.  That  Eye  of  Heaven 
is  bright  with  unutterable  interest  and  love,  and  we 
can  only  fear  its  look,  as  Peter  did  that  of  Christ, 
when  we  have  done  wrong. 

I  lately  saw  a  Catholic  representation  of  the  Deity 


155 


in  the  form  of  the  Trinity,  —  the  Father,  a  venerable 
old  man,  seated  on  one  side,  with  the  earth  as  a  globe 
on  his  lap  ;  on  the  other  side  a  younger  man,  as  the 
Son  ;  and  midway  between  the  two  an  illuminated 
Dove,  hovering,  as  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  have  also 
seen,  in  a  recent  number  of  Godey's  Lady's  Book,  a 
series  of  pictures  on  the  Creation,  in  which  God  was 
represented  as  a  man,  at  work  on  the  Creation  in  its 
various  parts.  All  such  images  blur  and  mar  for 
many  minds  the  sense  of  the  universal,  spiritual,  glori- 
ous, and  benignant  presence  of  the  Father  of  all.  For 
when  we  make  God  man,  we  make  him  finite.  But 
he  is  in  heaven,  boundless,  pure,  bright,  majestic,  ever 
over  us,  as  the  infinite  sky,  except  that  no  cloud  ever 
obscures,  no  storms  disturb,  the  serenity  of  his  Being. 
All  great  truths  are  necessarily  indefinite,  —  the 
existence  and  presence  of  God,  inspiration,  the  im- 
mortality of  the  human  soul.  They  must  all  stand 
in  our  minds  in  large  and  flowing  outlines.  Our 
compasses  are  not  made  to  draw  their  exact  circum- 
ference. We  are  not  of  a  calibre  and  bore  to  carry 
that  ball.  We  are  not  to  cut  truth  to  the  quick,  for 
then  it  bleeds  to  death.  God  is  not  a  form,  any  form, 
—  even  the  most  beautiful  or  majestic,  man.  He  is  a 
Presence,  universal,  living,  all-powerful,  and  all-lov- 
ing. Too  often  he  is  addressed  in  tevival  meet- 
ings as  if  he  were  specially  near,  or  as  the  piriests  of 
Baal  cried  unto  their  God ;  as  if  he  were  a  great  way 
off,  when  he  is  near ;  or  as  requiring  endless  repeti- 
tions in  our  requests,  when  he  knows  all  even  before 


156 


we  speak  ;  or  as  waiting  to  be  entreated  with  ago- 
nizing supplications,  when  he  is  more  placable  and 
benign  than  any  earthly  parent  to  give  all  necessary 
good  to  his  children.  He  overflows  creation.  He  is 
all  in  all.  While  we  walk  forth  over  these  rich  scenes 
of  earth,  and  under  the  stupendous  sky,  we  should 
cherish  that  "  sense  sublinrie  "  the  poet  speaks  of,  — 

"  Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  breathing  air. 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man,  — 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  beings,  all  objects  of  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

3.  But  the  heart  and  flesh  have  another  note  in 
their  cry,  and  it  is  for  a  Good  Being,  or,  as  our  Saxon 
has  it,  God,  that  is,  the  Good,  whom  we  may  love. 
If  God  is,  and  if  he  is  present,  what  matters  it,  if  he 
is  a  malicious  Power,  planning  our  pain  and  misery, 
and  eventually  decreeing  our  eternal  ruin  ?  He  who 
teaches  such  a  view  of  the  Supreme,  educates  infi- 
dels. Calvinism  has  created  hosts  of  unbelievers. 
It  is  a  religion  suited  to  some  dark  and  stern  and  ter- 
rible race  of  beings,  who  imagine  God  altogether 
such  a  being  as  themselves  ;  not  to  us  tender-hearted 
men,  women,  and  children.  If  we  may  suppose 
such  a  thing,  it  would  be  a  religion  for  the  lion  and 
the  rhinoceros ;  not  for  hearts  that  may  be  broken,  for 
eyes  that  can  weep,  and  for  sinning,  suffering,  dying 
mortals.  They  ask  for  something  gentler,  milder, 
brighter.     True,  there  is  evil ;  but  evil  is  not  abso- 


157 


lute,  but  relative.  "  If  I  were  God,"  said  a  divine, 
with  more  point  than  reverence,  "  I  would  have  it  all 
my  own  way."  With  reverence  let  us  say,  He  does 
have  it  all  his  own  way.  There  is  no  Almighty 
Devil  to  compete  with  Him  the  throne  of  the  uni- 
verse, as  Milton  has  fabled,  no  everlasting  evil,  no 
eternal  hell.  He  is  Absolute,  Eternal,  Almighty 
Good.  Evil  is  the  shadow  which  his  finite  and  im- 
perfect creatures  cast,  not  his  shadow.  There  is 
indeed  pain,  suffering,  sin.  But  we  must  not  judge 
the  work  before  it  is  done.  A  temple  begun  is  de- 
formity itself;  advanced,  it  begins  to  put  on  grace 
and  majesty ;  completed,  we  see  that  the  imperfec- 
tions were  necessary  stages  to  its  glorious  consum- 
mation. This  life  is  a  beginning,  a  school,  a  disci- 
pline, a  foundation.  The  finished  temple  soars  far 
beyond,  and  its  pinnacle  reaches  up  into  worlds  above, 
not  of  time  and  sense.  God,  the  Good,  is  in  all  sys- 
tems, all  beings,  and  in  all  working  according  to  his 
own  being,  that  is,  for  good.  Father  is  his  proper 
name.  Nature,  Providence,  Jesus,  all  teach  this  com- 
forting lesson.  And  when  the  heart  in  its  hopes  and 
affections,  and  the  flesh  in  its  griefs  and  pangs,  cry, 
the  response  comes  from  every  side,  and  is  echoed 
and  re-echoed  in  endless  and  harmonious  sounds,  — 
God  is  good.  This  is  the  psalm  of  David.  This 
is  the  sermon  of  Jesus.  Humanity,  blind  and  dark 
as  it  is,  sings  this  hymn,  God  is  good  ;  and  this  is 
the  sublime  music  of  the  spheres,  God  is  good. 
Angels   and    archangels,   cherubim    and    seraphim, 

14 


158  THE  soul's  want  of  god. 

chant  it  to  the  listening  ear  of  eternity,  God  is  good, 
God  is  good. 

4.  But  this  is  not  enough.  The  want  of  the  soul 
is  not  only  for  a  Good,  but  for  a  Great  God,  whom 
we  may  adore.  It  admires  greatness  with  an  even 
earlier  and  intenser  admiration  than  goodness.  It 
worships  genius.  If  a  new  poet,  an  Alexander 
Smith,  appear,  the  whole  world  is  anxious  to  read 
and  know  him.  This  is  no  factitious  taste.  It  is 
inborn  and  necessary.  We  may  and  do  often  mis- 
take what  is  greatness,  but  we  all  admire  it,  desire, 
rejoice  in  it.  Our  nature  has  been  constructed  on  a 
scale  so  large  and  generous  itself,  that  it  cannot  in 
the  end  be  satisfied  with  anything  less  than  the  great, 
the  vast,  the  illimitable.  We  go  far  and  study  long 
to  reach  these  qualities.  The  life  of  a  man  like  Na- 
poleon, the  presence  of  Niagara,  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
in  a  storm,  a  battle,  an  earthquake,  a  volcano,  appeal 
to  something  in  us  which  rises  up,  and  sometimes,  to 
our  own  astonishment,  clainas  kindred  with  these 
forces  in  man  and  in  nature.  In  the  infinite  power 
and  greatness  of  God,  this  inborn  reverence  of  our 
nature  for  the  great  finds  its  true  and  purifying  ob- 
ject. This  passion  for  greatness,  unguided,  makes  us 
idolaters,  but  directed  and  enlightened  by  Christian- 
ity, it  makes  us  worshippers  of  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  Man-worship  is  empty  ;  mere  fond  admira- 
tion of  a  cave  or  a  mountain  is  sentimentalism ;  the 
praise  of  genius  is  often  as  hollow  as  sounding  brass ; 
for  only  when  objects  are  put  in  their  right  places, 


159 


and  we  respect  the  greatest  as  the  greatest,  and  all 
things  less  as  emanations  and  manifestations  of  that 
uncreated  glory,  do  our  intellectual  and  spiritual  fac- 
ulties come  into  their  proper  order,  and  work  to  their 
appointed  ends.  The  heart  and  flesh  cry  out.  Give 
us  something  greater  than  the  Alps,  or  the  sea,  or 
man,  or  angel ;  yea,  they  stretch  their  wings  to  a 
flight  beyond  all  visible  majesty  of  heavens  or  earth, 
and  ask  for  God,  for  Him  who  is  greater  than  all  his 
works,  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  are  they  satisfied. 
Our  tastes  change  very  much  from  youth  onward. 
Things  we  once  passionately  admired  cease  to  move 
us.  The  soul  has  got  beyond  them.  Jt  is  travelling 
upward.  It  exhausts  one  thing  after  another.  But 
there  is  one  youthful  sentiment  that  is  never  out- 
grown, —  that  rises  with  our  intellectual  stature",  and 
spreads  with  our  moral  expansion,  and  soars  with 
our  spiritual  aspirations,  —  and  that  is  our  faith  in 
the  Great  God,  — 

"  And,  as  it  hastens,  every  age 
But  makes  its  brightness  more  ^^vine." 

5.  The  nature  of  man  has  been  so  created  as  to 
seek  after  a  Wise  and  Infinite  Intelligence.  We  ad- 
mire with  huge  respect  the  men  even  who  have 
been  able  to  pocket  a  little  science,  who  can  read 
a  dozen  languages,  who  are  largely  conversant  with 
affairs,  and  know  things  as  they  are.  A  skilful 
invention  is  heralded  from  hemisphere  to  hemi- 
sphere. He  who  has  read  one  of  the  characters  in 
Nature's  alphabet,  or  spelled  out  a  few  syllables  or 


160  THE    soul's    want    OF    GOD. 

words  in  her  mighty  lore,  is  hailed  with  all  the  titles 
of  glory.  But  no  libraries,  geniuses,  scientific  or  lit- 
erary associations,  no  fragments  and  crumbs  that  fall 
from  the  table  of  knowledge,  can  meet  the  unextin- 
guishable  thirst  of  man  for  the  s{)iritual  and  the  im- 
mortal. Let  him  not  think  to  fill  an  infinite  craving 
with  anything  less  than  the  Infinite.  Newton  ex- 
pressed it  all,  when,  with  all  his  vast  illumination  of 
wisdom,  entering  profoundly  as  he  did  into  the  secret 
chambers  of  the  knowledge  of  the  universe,  he  said 
he  seemed  but  as  a  child  wandering  on  the  beach, 
picking  up  here  and  there  and  admiring  a  prettier 
stone  or  shell  than  usual,  while  the  great  ocean  of 
truth  rolled  dark  and  boundless  beyond  him. 

This  yearning  for  a  God  wise,  as  well  as  mighty 
and  good,  whom  we  may  trust  as  well  as  love  and 
reverence,  is  especially  felt  in  the  difficult  problems 
of  our  own  life.  Is  the  plan  of  the  world  intelligent, 
unerring,  or  is  it  a  failure  and  an  abortion  ?  Milton 
gave  great  and  just  offence  to  our  reverence,  when 
he  describes  the'Devil  as  overreaching  God,  and  de- 
feating his  plan  in  the  creation  of  the  earth  and  the 
formation  pf  man.  Who  is  this  Devil,  we  ask  ?  If 
he  has  done  the  thing  once,  may  he  not  again  ?  may 
he  not  always  ?  and,  finally,  may  he  not  carry  down 
to  his  own  black  abodes  the  splendid  trophy  of  a  lost 
human  soul,  snatched  from  the  hand  of  God,  —  yea,  of 
multitudes  of  such  ?  And  fearful  to  say,  such  is  the 
theology,  creed,  faith,  of  the  dominant  churches  of 
Christendom  at  this  day.     No,  I  will  not  say  faith, 


161 

for  it  is  too  horrible  to  Be  the  distinctly  conscious  and 
well-considered  faith  of  an  intelligent  age.  Against 
such  a  faith,  if  it  anywhere  lurks  among  the  dry 
husks  and  stubble  of  an  antiquated  body  of  divin- 
ity, human  nature,  heavenly  and  earthly,  heart  and 
flesh,  cry  out  in  protest.  They  crave  a  God  of  wis- 
dom, one,  so  to  speak  with  awe,  who  understands 
himself;  not  the  God  of  Calvin,  overruled  by  a  Law 
mightier  than  himself,  the  decree  of  Fate,  —  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Greek  tragedy;  not  the  God  of  some 
philosophers,  —  a  Being  slowly  coming  to  self-con- 
sciousness in  man ;  but  an  original,  uncreated,  un- 
erring, infinite,  conscious  Wisdom,  whom  we  can 
trust,  and  know  that  we  are  not  deceived,  and  follow 
without  going  astray  ;  whose  works  and  whose  word 
are  full  of  light  and  life,  and  conduct  every  true 
aspirant  and  humble  follower  and  servant  to  never- 
ending  rest  and  peace. 

But  if  I  have  at  all  rightly  interpreted  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  cry,  which  is  for  ever  ascending  from 
the  breast,  and  seeking  after  God,  you  may  ask.  How 
shall  it  be  satisfied  ?  I  would  not  dogmatize,  and  say 
by  any  one  way,  but  rather  by  all  ways.  It  is  more 
in  the  waiting,  receiving,  and  teachable  state  of  the 
soul,  than  it  is  by  methods,  cultures,  churches,  and 
dispensations.  When  the  final  reckoning  comes,  and 
honor  is  paid  to  whom  honor  is  due,  I  doubt  not  it 
will  be  found  that  Mahomet  saved  some  as  well  as 
Moses,  and  that  China,  now  seeming  to  awake  with 
wondrous  life,  and  cry  through  all  its  millions  after 

14* 


162 


something  better  than  it  has  had,  after  the  living 
God,  — that  China  has  not  been  for  so  many  ages  a 
mere  blank  and  desert  of  souls.  Still,  we  cannot 
doubt  the  best  way  is  best.  The  purest  truth  is  a 
million  times  better  than -truth  with  one  drop  of  al- 
loy or  sediment  of  error.  Seek,  then,  for  the  truth, 
and  in  the  truth  God  will  ever  be  coming,  and  enter- 
ing in  and  taking  possession  of  the  soul,  and  driving 
out  every  darkness  and  weakness.  Rest  not  short 
of  God.  The  mistake  of  the  churches  is,  they  stop 
before  they  come  to  the  end.  The  end  is  God,  the 
ever-present,  living,  good,  powerful,  wise ;  they  pause 
in  men,  they  call  themselves  by  a  human  appellation  ; 
they  halt  at  the  saints,  the  Virgin  Mary ;  their  timid 
and  unbelieving  worship  does  not  climb  to  the  eter- 
nal temple,  and  present  itself  filially  but  confidently 
before  the  great  white  throne  of  the  Father.  The 
Christian  Church  in  general  has  not  risen  above 
Christ.  It  has  been  the  Christian^  not  the  Divine  era. 
He  is  indeed  the  God  to  mOst,  above  and  beyond 
whom  they  conceive  of  no  God,  though  he  was  weary, 
and  sad,  and  tempted,  and  ignorant,  as  he  himself 
says,  of  some  things,  and  finally  died,  —  all  of  which 
God  could  not  be  and  do,  and  be  a  God  in  the  high- 
est sense.  The  Church  must  learn  that  the  end  is 
not  Christ,  but  God ;  that  Christ  is  the  Mediator, 
medium,  way  to  the  Father.  He  does  not  attract  our 
love,  or  regard,  or  worship,  to  himself,  and  detain  it 
there.  He  prays  and  teaches  us  to  pray  to  the 
Father.     He  comes  into  the  world,  not  to  do  his  own 


163 


will,  but  the  will  of  the  Father.  My  Father  is 
greater  than  I ;  and  he  prayed  that  his  disciples 
might  be  one  with  him,  as  he  was  one  with  the 
Father,  that  the  chain  might  be  complete,  and  the 
soul  find  a  way  for  its  ascent  to  God  and  heaven, — 
men  united  to  Christ,  Christ  and  his  Church  united 
to  the  Father.  The  world  is  a  sublime  ruin,  and  the 
Church  itself  is  a  superstition,  until  God  becomes  all 
in  all.  What  he  fills  is  filled,  and  what  he  blesses  is 
blessed.  We  wander  in  pain  and  sin,  hopeless  and 
helpless,  until  we  come  to  Christ,  and  through  Christ 
come  to  the  Father.  May  we  each  and  all  hearken 
to  this  voice  after  God,  ever  rising  up  from  the  deep- 
est places  of  the  spirit-world,  and  yearning  with 
strong  crying  and  tears  after  the  Supreme  Good  and 
Love.  The  best  things  of  earth  will  only  mock  and 
ruin  us,  if  we  obey  not  this  first  and  most  urgent  of 
all  wants,  this  hunger  and  thirst  of  an  immortal  na- 
ture. Pray,  read,  think,  labor,  study,  do  anything, 
do  everything  that  is  right,  to  gain  this  true  wisdom. 
Spend  life  in  this  service,  and  it  will  be  well  spent. 
All  its  various  scenes  and  trials,  its  joys  and  bless- 
ings and  hopes,  its  schools  and  homes  and  churches 
and  governments,  will  then  have  all  done  for  us  their 
inconceivable  and  eternal  benefit.  For  they  will 
have  ripened  within  these  frail,  but  never-dying  spir- 
its, the  faith  and  hope  and  love  of  the  One  Living 
and  True  God,  Father  of  all,  of  Christ  and  men  and 
angels,  now  and  for  ever. 


DISCOURSE    IX 


BE  STILL  AND  KNOW  GOD. 

BE   STILL,   AND    KNOW   THAT    I    AM   GOD.  —  Psalm   xlvi.  10. 

Every  period  and  every  place  have  their  peculiar 
obstructions  to  the  Christian  life.  The  mistake 
committed  by  theologians  is  in  making  the  Devil 
but  one,  when  his  name  is  Legion.  The  great  induc- 
tive philosopher  assigned  four  kinds  of  prejudices  to 
man,  which  he  termed  respectively,  idols  of  the  tribe, 
or  those  inherent  in  human  nature ;  idols  of  the  den, 
or  those  peculiar  to  the  individual ;  idols  of  the  mar- 
ket, or  those  arising  from  intercourse  and  association 
with  mankind ;  and  the  idols  of  the  theatre,  or  the 
errors  which  come  from  false  systems  of  philosophy 
and  theology,  and  which  give  fictitious  or  theatrical 
notions  of  things.  The  devils  might  have  a  similar 
classification,  and  there  is  one  of  those  which  come 
from  the  market,  or  from  intercourse  and  association 
with  mankind,  that  might  without  slander  be  called 
the  Devil  of  Haste. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  hurry.     There  is  an  evil 
spirit  abroad  in  our  civilization,  that  drives  men  too 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD.  165 

fast  and  too  far.  Life,  that  was  formerly  likened  to 
a  journey,  a  voyage,  or  a  pilgrimage,  has  become  a 
race,  a  chase,  in  which  not  bit  and  bridle,  but  spurs 
and  whip,  are  deemed  the  rider's  best  equipment. 
Our  gospel  is  condensed  into  one  line  :  "  What  thou 
doest,  do  quicklyP  We  overdo  even  our  good  things. 
If  we  are  righteous,  and  undertake  righteous  reforms, 
we  are  sometimes  in  the  category  of  Solomon, 
"righteous  overmuch."  "Drive"  is  the  word  of  the 
times.  A  late  writer  has  said  that  "  a  railway  train 
should  be  the  emblem  on  our  shield,  with  the  motto. 
Hurrah  I " 

In  short,  the  Devil  of  Haste  has  entered  in  and 
possessed  us,  and  he  is  not  a  good  angel,  but  a  veri- 
table devil.  He  hurries  us  so  fast  that  we  have  no 
time  to  "be  still  and  know  God,"  no  place  quiet 
enough  to  read  our  Bibles  and  say  our  prayers.  Or, 
if  he  should  put  his  hand  upon  religion,  he  wishes, 
to  use  the  vulgar  phrase,  to  "  put  it  through  quick," 
and  he  has  therefore  a  high  estimation  of  camp- 
meetings  and  revivals,  and  the  whole  enginery  of 
fear  and  excitement,  as  speedy  labor-saving  machines 
to  accomplish  a  work,  which,  in  the  slower  times  of 
prophets,  apostles,  martyrs,  and  saints,  it  was  thought 
could  only  be  effected  by  a  lifetime  of  prayer  and 
charity  and  self-denial.  This  American  system  of 
conversion  will,  we  fear,  lose  in  quality  all  it  gains 
in  time.  Its  style  of  Christianity  will  be  perishable, 
we  apprehend,  as  it  is  rapid.  Character  is  not  a 
blow  struck  once,  but  a  growth.     What  is  life  given 


166  BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD. 

for,  but  that,  through  its  revolving  years  and  circling 
ages,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  constitution  may 
come,  like  the  physical,  to  their  gradual  perfection 
by  successive  stages  of  advancement  ?  There  is  no 
short  cut  to  heaven,  no  swift  march  we  can  steal 
upon  the  sure-abiding  and  the  long-unfolding  laws 
of  this  most  ancient  universe.  A  day's  work  in  a 
day  is  all  we  can  ever  do ;  and  all  that  is  done  more 
than  that,  we  have  to  settle  for  afterwards  under  high 
penalties  for  disobedience. 

In  education,  the  methods  of  haste,  the  early  and 
long-continued  confinement  of  very  young  children 
in  close  and  ill-ventilated  roomfe,  the  short,  twelve- 
lesson  modes  of  learning,  the  forcing  processes  of 
prizes,  parts,  and  embittering  emulation  to  stuff  the 
youthful  memory  with  the  largest  amount  of  studies, 
whether  understood  and  digested  or  not,  belong  to 
the  same  system.  Hence  tender  plants  are  watered 
so  much  that  they  are  drowned.  The  fuel  is  heaped 
so  abundantly  on  the  fire,  that  every  spark  goes  out. 
The  culture  of  an  immortal  mind  excludes  by  the 
very  terms  the  notion  of  a  hot-house  development. 
But  the  present  results  are  such  as  to  bid  us  pause 
in  our  headlong  career,  "  be  still  and  know  God " 
and  his  laws,  and  sit  humbly  and  quietly  at  the 
inner  oracle,  and  gain  reliable  intimations  how  we 
may  touch  this  inward  spiritual  organization  of  a 
human  being,  a  thousand  times  more  delicate  and 
marvellous  than  any  watch-work  of  wheels  and 
springs,  and  not  throw  it  into  lasting  and  perhaps 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD.  167 

irretrievable  disorder.  Young  ladies  "finish  their 
education  "  in  their  teens,  and  are  "brought  out"  to 
flutter  through  a  brief  season  of  admiration,  and  die 
of  consumption  before  the  age  at  which  their  grand- 
mothers began  to  live.  Young  men  foolishly  buy 
their  time  before  they  are  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
to  go  to  California,  or  some  other  splendid  lottery, 
where  the  blanks  are  counted  by  thousands,  and  the 
prizes  by  units. 

Now  if  we  will  stop  long  enough  to  hear  a  word 
of  exhortation,  we  shall  see  that,  while  activity,  in- 
dustry, progress,  and  despatch  are  all  good  in  their 
places  and  within  due  bounds,  the  reckless  habit  of 
the  present  generation  is  not  good  for  anybody  or 
anything.  Man  was  not  made  with  wings  to  fly, 
but  with  feet  to  walk.  And  if  by  sail,  engine,  rail, 
and  wire  he  can  move  with  the  steam  and  with  the. 
lightning,  there  is  all  the  more  reason  why  the  leis- 
ure which  he  thus  accumulates  more  and  more,  by 
his  labor  and  time  saving  machinery,  he  should  de- 
vote to  repose,  and  calm  meditation  on  God  and 
duty,  and  earnest  supplication  for  the  holy  and 
serene  life  of  Jesus.  There  is  time  and  there  is 
eternity  before  us,  and  whatever  is  worth  doing  at 
all,  is  worth  doing  well.  They  who  run  may  read, 
but  running  is  not  favorable  to  reading.  The  slow- 
paced  are  sometimes  the  quickest  at  the  goal.  We 
live  but  once  in  this  world,  and  we  are  bound  to 
extract  out  of  life,  by  trial,  experience,  exercise  of  our 
faculties  and  the  associated  power  and  knowledge  of 


168  BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD. 

the  race,  and  the  superior  illumination  from  above, 
all  the  good  this  world  can  yield.  But  this  hot  and 
impatient  mood  of  life  leaves  a  host  of  duties  not 
done,  a  multitude  of  truths  not  meditated,  a  world 
of  pleasures  not  enjoyed,  and  a  constellation  of 
graces  and  virtues  not  cultivated  and  assimilated. 
Let  us  know  that  quicksilver  is  not  the  only  metal, 
nor  lightning  the  only  element.  Instead  of  this 
feverish  and  eager  rushing  across  the  stage  of  life,  as 
of  the  horse  plunging  into  the  battle,  we  will  lift  up 
serene  brows  to  the  calm  heavens,  and  we  will 
repeat  in  a  low  tone  that  beautiful  strain,  which  has 
been  chanted  for  two  thousand  years,  to  quiet  the 
restless  bosom  of  humanity,  never  more  restless  than 
here  and  now,  —  "Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am 
God." 

So  highly  was  silence  esteemed  by  that  remarka- 
ble reformer  and  philosopher  of  the  ancient  world, 
Pythagoras,  that  he  enjoined  upon  his  disciples  a 
probation  of  five  years  without  speaking,  by  which 
their  minds  might  be  cleared  of  trifles,  and  learn  self- 
control.  We  can  easily  conceive  that  such  a  rule, 
absurd  as  it  appears  at  first,  was  based  upon  deep 
principles,  and  we  know  from  history  that  noble 
spirits  were  trained  in  that  school  of  still  meditation, 
whom  men  consented  to  call  divine,  and  whose  sys- 
tems of  thought  ruled  for  generations  over  the  most 
polished  nations  of  the  earth. 

Nor  has  the  Christian  world  been  without  its  rep- 
resentatives of  the  virtues  of  silence  and  rest.     To 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD.  169 

the  unspeaking  and  hushed  Quaker  assembly  the 
secret  of  divine  truth  and  love  has  been  unveiled. 
The  still  of  mind  would  seem  to  share  the  blessins: 
with  the  pure  in  heart,  of  seeing  God.  Immortal 
principles  have  crystallized  in  secrecy  and  calmness 
of  soul.  And  the  purity  and  spirituality  of  doctrine, 
and  the  freedom  from  the  grosser  sins  and  corrupt 
institutions  and  customs  of  the  world,  which  are 
naturally  associated  with  Quakerism,  testify  that  a 
blessing  from  above  has  descended  in  those  rapt  and 
heaven-opened  pauses  of  the  mind. 

Who  indeed  can  doubt,  that,  if  men  would  oftener 
stop  in  their  hurried  life,  and  recur  to  the  First  Great 
Cause,  and  cast  a  look  to  heaven  while  toiling 
and  worrying  themselves  among  their  earthly  cares, 
they  would  be  far  better  armed  against  temptation, 
and  that  fountains  of  unfading  happiness  would  be 
opened  to  the  thirsting  soul  ?  "Who  is  weak,  when 
the  thought  of  God  is  in  his  mind  ?  Who  is  poor, 
when  the  love  of  God  is  in  his  heart?  Who  is 
wretched,  when  he  consciously  rests  on  an  Almighty 
arm? 

For  our  spiritual  attainments  depend  less  upon 
isolated  efforts,  or  direct  lessons,  than  on  the  general 
moods  and  postures  of  the  soul,  produced  by  the 
whole  web  of  discipline  in  which  we  are  enveloped. 
Life  is  truly  found  in  a  heavenly  exaltation  of  our 
whole  being,  in  the  attitude  of  the  mind  and  its 
habitual  gait  and  carriage  as  immortal,  in  the  disen- 
chantment from  the  transient  trifles  which  crumble 

15 


170  BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD. 

to  pieces  in  our  hand,  in  the  resumption  by  the  soul 
of  its  native  and  conscious  dignity,  as  a  child  of  the 
Infinite  Father  and  an  heir  of  eternal  life.  Every 
man  must  be  aware  at  times  of  this  shining  up 
within  him  of  a  central  light,  like  a  candle  in  a  trans- 
parent vase,  the  enkindling  of  a  celestial  heat,  which 
'  he  certainly  never  originated,  and  which  as  certainly 
he  can  never  extinguish.  Every  one  must  feel,  as  he 
is  perplexed  with  his  swarm  of  little  cares,  and  wea- 
ried with  the  daily  drudgery  of  his  oft-repeated  work, 
that  he  is  a  kind  of  Belisarius,  an  emperor  begging ; 
a  species  of  Pegasus,  born  to  fly  through  the  em- 
pyrean, but  toiling  in  the  harness  of  earth.  There 
is  a  sublime  discontent  that  is  proof  of  immortality. 
While,  then,  there  must  be  no  relaxation  of  fidelity 
in  the  smallest  details  of  duty,  how  good  it  is  again 
and  again  to  uplift  the  flagging  soul  into  a  serener 
atmosphere,  to  touch  spiritual  things  and  receive 
their  electric  shock,  to  be  still  and  know  that  God  is 
God  for  ever  and  ever.  Often  and  often  must  we 
thus  charge  home  upon  our  dull  insensibility,  and 
vitalize  our  sluggish  gratitude.  But  whatever  helps 
us  thus  to  retire  from  the  bustling  world  of  sense  into 
the  tranquil  world  of  infinite  love,  beauty,  and  glory, - 
be  it  a  book,  a  prayer,  the  call  of  a  friend,  the  claim 
of  the  poor,  or  a  Scripture,  or  a  poem,  or  a  flower, 
as  surely  raises  us  heavenward,  places  us  in  a  condi- 
tion from  which  we  can  never  wholly  fall  away,  as  if 
a  visible  arm  were  stretched  out  from  the  opening 
sky  to  lift  us  upwards. 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD.  171 

A  little  girl,  who  for  the  first  time  was  passing 
through   the    streets   of    a   crowded    city   with    her 
mother,  innocently  inquired,  "  Mother,  when  do  the 
people  get  time  to  pray  here  ?  "     It  is  a  question,  like 
many  of  those  put  by  children,  easier  asked  than  an- 
swered.    When  verily  do  men,  either  in  city  or  coun- 
try, amidst  the  incessant  demands  upon  their  atten- 
tion, get  time  to  quiet  their  nerves,  to  call  home  their 
wandering  thoughts,  and  really  and  calmly  to  think 
of  duty  and  of  eternity  ?     Hurried  as  they  are,  from 
morn  to  latest  eve,  not  only  with  the  natural  haste  of 
labor,  and  quick  steps,  and  urgent  calls  on  body  and 
brain,  but  with  the  speed  of  machines,  with  engines 
"  grating  harsh  thunder,"  and  the  lightning  revolution 
of   countless  wheels,  what  spare  moment  is  there 
when  one  can  call  his  soul  his  own,  and  can  direct 
that  soul,  freighted  with  all  its  wondrous  affections 
and  yearnings,  to  the  Infinite  Father  and    to    the 
heavenly  home'?     Alas  I  how  much  of  the  time  we 
call  life  is  really  the  death,  the  deadness,  of  the  living 
part !     We  vacate  the  ample  palace  of  the  soul,  to 
take  up  mean  and  miserable  quarters  in  the  hut  of 
coarse  and  brutish  world liness.     How  much  we  need 
to  do  what  we  were  told  when  children  to  do  in  read- 
ing, mind  our  stops!     Did  a  day  never  pass,  my 
brother,  when  close  and  absorbing  business  so  steeped 
your  senses  in  forgetfulness,  that  even  the  thought  of 
God,  much  less  a  calm  and  conscious  leaning  upon 
him,  a  felt  uplifting   and   grateful  opening  of    the 
heart  to  him,  as  the   Fountain  of  light  and  love, 


172  BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD. 

never  for  one  blessed  instant  visited  you  from  twi- 
light to  twilight  ?  Sterne  fancied  the  poor  captive 
pining  in  his  cell,  and  visited  with  one  straggling  ray 
of  light  from  the  cheerful  upper  world,  but  the  pris- 
oner of  worldliness  is  sunk  in  a  subterranean  dun- 
geon, whose  solid  darkness  is  not  pierced  by  a  soli- 
tary ray. 

When  the  mortal  rests  on  the  mortal,  it  is  full  of 
toil  and  trouble  ;  but  when  it  rests  on  the  immortal, 
it  finds  rest  and  peace.  Man  leaning  on  man  finds 
his  support  but  a  fragile  reed  ;  but,  leaning  on  God, 
he  cannot  be  greatly  moved.  The  noble  German 
dying  asked  for  a  great  thought  to  refresh  him.  So 
is  it  with  us  all  living,  as  well  as  dying.  Cast  in 
these  mortal  straits,  raised  and  depressed  by  the  fluc- 
tuating body,  wounded  and  bleeding  in  the  life-bat- 
tle, washed  and  whelmed  in  the  surges  of  this  time- 
sea,  to  which  we  cannot  say,  "  Peace,  be  still!  "  we 
thirst  to  be  refreshed  by  a  great  thought,  and  the 
greatest  of  all  thoughts  is  that  of  God.  When  we 
earnestly  think  of  his  glorious  being,  of  his  vast  cre- 
ation, of  his  protecting  providence,  and  of  his  fatherly 
grace  and  love,  when  we  strive  to  acquaint  ourselves 
with  him,  and  to  bow  to  his  will,  the  agitation 
in  our  bosoms  subsides,  and  peace,  heavenly  peace, 
waves  over  us  her  palm. 

This  peace  is  not  the  stagnation  of  our  powers, 
but  their  harmonious  action.  It  is  not  the  insensi- 
bility of  a  single  faculty  or  affection,  but  the  subor- 
dination of  all. under  the  legitimate  dominion  of  con- 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD.  173 

science  and  reason,  whose  right  it  is  to  reign.  It  is 
the  body  with  every  limb  and  sense  performing  its 
proper  function  without  usurpation  and  without  un- 
worthy compliance.  It  is  the  spirit  with  every  ca- 
pacity growing,  every  taste  in  exercise,  and  every  affec- 
tion aspiring,  reigning  over  the  body  and  under  God 
to  the  fulfilling  of  his  divine  plan  of  a  human  being. 
So  that  peace  is  not  death,  dulness,  torpor,  which 
too  many  associate  with  religion,  but  true  vigor,  life 
which  is  life.  The  larger,  therefore,  by  study,  disci- 
pline, obedience,  suffering,  our  acquaintance  with 
God  becomes,  the  more  entirely  our  being  is  spread 
over  his  creation,  and  the  greater  the  number  of 
points  at  which  it  is  brought  into  harmonious  affinity 
with  his  laws  in  creation,  in  providence,  and  in  reve- 
lation, the  broader  the  basis  of  our  peace,  and  the 
more  immovable  and  eternal  the  soul's  rest.  We 
see  the  truth  of  both  propositions  resolved  into  one, 
to  be  still  that  we  may  know  God,  and  to  acquaint 
ourselves  with  him  that  we  may  be  at  peace.  It  is 
because  we  are  so  timid  in  our  faith,  so  hesitating  in 
our  love,  so  reluctant  and  feeble  in  our  service,  that 
we  are  so  much  at  the  mercy  of  circumstances,  and 
possess  so  little  of  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth 
understanding.  But  cast  off  fearlessly,  restless  voy- 
ager of  earth,  from  these  shores.  Let  the  familiar 
headlands  disappear ;  launch  out  into  the  mighty 
deep,  and  fear  not  its  winds  and  waves  ;  for  all  that 
ocean  on  which  you  sail  is  an  ocean  of  love.  Its 
icebergs  even  are  vast  monuments  of  love,  its  tropic 

15* 


174  BE    STILL    AND    KNOW    GOD. 

suns  blaze  with  love,  and  its  awful  hurricanes,  when 
Omnipotence  rides  the  gale  and  heaven  and  earth 
are  mingled  together,  and  its  gentle  calms,  when  not 
a  ripple  breaks  the  mirror,  —  all,  all  are  love,  and  the 
heart  that  bows  intelligently  and  affectionately  to  the 
will  of  the  Infinite  Helmsman  of  the  voyage,  will 
abide  in  peace,  and  abide  in  it  for  ever. 

The  introductory  passage  of  St.  Augustine's  Con- 
fessions gives  us  a  volume  of  wisdom  on  this  sub- 
ject, in  few  words :  "  O  God,  thou  awakest  us  to 
delight  in  thy  praise  ;  for  thou  makest  us  for  thyself, 
and  our  heart  is  restless  until  it  find  rest  in  thee." 

The  whole  argument  in  behalf  of  the  culture  of  a 
calm,  meditative  spirit  is  narrowed  to  one  fact,  and 
the  exhortation  to  be  drawn  from  thence  is  as  effectual 
as  any  words  could  utter  or  accumulate,  —  Jesus 
PRAYED.  Not  for  example's  sake  alone,  not  from 
habit,  education,  form,  but  from  the  present  and  felt 
needs  of  the  spirit,  and  its  aspirations  heavenward, 
he  prayed  to  his  Father  and  our  Father,  to  his  God 
and  our  God.  He  passed  whole  nights  in  prayer> 
not  as  an  ascetic  task,  but  as  the  natural  expression 
of  his  spiritual  state.  But  in  our  humbler  case  wor- 
ship and  meditation  cannot  be  wholly  lyrical  and 
spontaneous.  There  must  mingle  with  them  some 
consciousness  of  the  earthly  that  is  resisted  and  over- 
come, as  well  as  of  the  heavenly  that  is  won  and  en- 
joyed. Our  spiritual  wings  cannot  always  be  spread, 
nor  our  flight  be  to  the  sun.  There  must  be  a  cer- 
tain religious  mechanitem  to  these  bodies,  turning  on 


BE    STILL    AND    KNOAV    GOD.  175 

joints,  and  to  these  souls,  asleep  one  third  of  the  time 
in  the  depths  of  unconsciousness  and  irresponsible- 
ness.  The  fixed  hour,  day,  place,  book,  are  not  to  be 
despised.  But  however  the  pause  comes,  come  it 
should  and  must  often  in  the  eager  rush  of  worldli 
ness  and  care.  "  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God." 
"  Commune  with  your  own  heart  upon  your  bed,  and 
be  still."  "  Acquaint  now  thyself  with  God,  and  be 
at  peace."  The  earth  makes  no  noise  or  jar  in  its 
sublime  revolution,  and  all  the  silver  spheres  of 
heaven  turn  on  harmonious  axles.  Impatient  mor- 
tal, look  up,  and  adore,  and  be  still  before  Him  who 
is  greater  than  all  his  works.  Think  more  calmly, 
act  more  serenely,  pray  more  fervently.  The  Chris- 
tian soul,  like  its  divine  prototype,  should  move  with 
a  holy  stillness  and  peace  in  its  place.  Shone  upon 
by  heavenly  light  and  moved  by  divine  power,  it  will 
seek  and  pray  to  enter  into  that  oneness  with  God 
by  which  all  its  motions  around  its  own  axis,  so  to 
say,  will  be  parts  and  arcs  of  the  larger  and  serener 
revolution  around  the  Central  Sun. 


DISCOURSE    X. 


UNION  WITH  GOD  AND  MAN. 

THAT   THEY   MAY  BE   MADE   PERFECT   IN   ONE.  —  John  XVU.  23. 

The  last  prayer  of  our  Saviour  for  his  followers 
was,  —  "  That  they  all  may  be  one ;  as  thou,  Father, 
art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one 
in  us  ;  —  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one  ; 
I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made 
perfect  in  one."  "  To  be  made  perfect  in  one  " —  one 
with  God  and  one  with  each  other  —  is  the  perfec- 
tion and  happiness  of  mankind.  An  ultimate  aim 
of  Christianity,  accordingly,  is  union,  harmony,  love. 
Instead  of  the  present  ceaseless  war  of  man  upon 
man,  the  selfish  strife  of  sects  and  parties,  the  worry- 
ing competition  of  business,  the  hostility  of  castes 
and  classes,  the  grinding  and  crushing  of  city  against 
city  and  country  against  country,  it  proposes  peace, 
—  peace  in  the  family,  in  the  church,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, in  the  nation,  and  between  the  nations. 
So  towards  the  Eternal  Majesty  of  heaven,  instead 
of  the  distance  and  coldness  of  strangers,  or  the  stub- 
bornness of  enemies,  it  would  give  the  confidence  and 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  177 

delightful  ease  of  children  in  a  father's  house,  so  that 
we  may  feel  God's  world  is  man's  home,  and  live 
before  the  Highest  in  a  holy  and  affectionate  spirit 
of  friendship.  And  the  Gospel  will  not  accomplish 
its  blessed  mission  to  man  until  it  shall  have  estab- 
lished this  brotherhood  of  the  species,  this  childhood 
of  man  to  God,  and  this  fatherhood  of  God  to  man, 
not  as  splendid  theories,  but  as  living,  practical  real- 
ities. 

'*  That  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one,"  are 
words  written  all  over  the  works  of  God.  They  con- 
tain a  profound  philosophy,  as  well  as  indicate  a  per- 
fect religion.  Union  is  the  law  of  universal  nature, 
and  disunion  the  exception ;  and  disunion  takes 
place  only  that  there  may  be  a  more  perfect  union. 
It  is  the  composition  of  seven  different  colors  that 
makes  the  absolute  light.  It  is  the  mixture  of  three 
diverse  gases  that  produces  the  vital  air ;  and  of  two, 
that  gives  us  the  vital  water.  It  is  the  congeries  of 
the  discordant  materials  which  science  analyzes  and 
classifies,  that  constitutes  the  round  and  revolving 
earth.  And  what  is  true  of  the  so-called  elements 
also  holds  good  of  all  the  various  objects  of  matter ; 
not  one  but  is  a  union,  a  composition,  an  agreement. 
And  when  this  union  is  broken,  it  is  only  a  tempo- 
rary transition  to  a  new  and  better  union;  even 
matter  itself  for  ever  rising  on  an  ascending  scale  of 
progress,  until,  instead  of  the  original  chaos,  we  now 
behold  a  beautiful  and  inhabited  globe. 

This  magnificent  law  of  God  is  in  force  and  man- 


178  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

ifestation  beyond  our  little  globe.  It  is  inscribed  on 
the  stars  of  the  firnnament,  and  chanted  in  the  music 
of  the  spheres.  Orbit  circling  within  orbit  and  system 
within  system, above,  below,  and  on  either  hand,  the 
mystic  dance  of  worlds,  ten  thousand  times  ten  thou- 
sand mighty  globes  in  swiftest  motion,  but  in  perfect 
method,  crossing  and  recrossing  one  another's  path 
without  collision,  testify  to  the  sublime  union  of  the 
material  and  visible  universe.  Even  the  seemingly 
lawless  meteors  and  the  erratic  comets  are  but  more 
dazzling  demonstrations  of  the  same  eternal  truth. 

It  is  said  by  some  one,  that  all  nature  is  at  war  ; 
but  it  is  a  superficial  remark.  More  truly  may  we 
say,  all  nature  is  at  peace,  and  her  seeming  conflict 
is  but  the  condition  of  a  more  absolute  harmony,  and 
her  very  variety  makes  the  real  universe.  It  is  dif- 
ferent notes  in  music  that  constitute  the  perfect  mel- 
ody ;  and  the  endless  changes,  revolutions,  and,  to 
our  dull  ears,  discords  of  the  creation,  are  in  truth  a 
more  concordant  anthem  of  praise  to  the  Creator. 

"  All  nature  is  but  art,  unknown  to  thee  ; 
All  chance,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see ; 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood  ; 
All  partial  evil,  universal  good." 

And  could  we  read  the  moral  as  clearly  as  we  can 
the  physical  creation,  we  should  no  doubt  see  the 
same  law,  if  not  the  same  fact,  in  every  part  of  its 
complicated  web.  We  should  know  that  evil  and 
good,  light  and  darkness,  misery  and  happiness,  were 
a»  essential   and  unavoidable  in   a  world   of  free. 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  179 

moral,  accountable,  and  improvable  agents,  as  the 
changes  of  matter  and  the  compensations  of  growth 
and  decay,  combination  and  dissolution,  from  a  glow- 
worm to  a  planet.  At  least,  we  cannot  get  away 
from  one  fact.  It  is  the  world  of  God.  He  made 
it,  and  not  we  ourselves.  He  created  its  beings,  es- 
tablished its  laws,  and  foresaw,  if  he  did  not  predes- 
tinate, its  evil  and  its  good.  But  we  must  not  judge 
the  architect's  work  half  done.  We  must  "  the  great 
issue  wait,"  and  not  suppose,  that,  because  we  see 
trouble  to-day,  we  see  the  character  and  meaning  of 
the  whole  unbounded  plan  of  our  Heavenly  Father. 
For  it  is  but  a  minute  arc  of  the  circle  of  eternity, 
crooked,  indeed,  and  unsightly  to  the  mole  eye  of 
man,  but  harmony  and  beauty  itself  to  the  all-com- 
prehending Mind. 

In  fact,  the  theory  of  Christianity  agrees  perfectly 
with  this  view,  and  the  specific  teachings  of  our  Lord 
corroborate  it.  What  we  know  not  now,  we  are  to 
know  hereafter.  The  tares  cannot  be  pulled  out 
from  among  the  wheat  until  the  harvest.  The  very 
Prince  of  Peace  came  to  send  forth  on  the  earth  a 
temporary  sword,  a  transition-fire,  to  make  way  for 
a  more  entire  union  of  soul  with  soul,  and  of  the 
finite  with  the  Infinite.  The  old  stubble  must  be 
burnt  up,  to  prepare  the  soil  for  a  new  and  more 
abundant  increase.  The  Church  itself  would  prove 
a  cause  of  contention  for  the  time  being,  and  Chris- 
tianity a  question  of  dispute,  but  only  that  in  the  end 
they  might  fulfil  the  conditions  of  a  more  lasting 


180  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

peace.  The  probe  and  the  knife  must  precede  the 
perfect  cure.  The  religion  that  was  cradled  amid 
crucifixions  and  martyrdoms  could  not  grow  to  its 
complete  maturity  in  the  earth  without  its  Inquisi- 
tions and  Smithfields.  Thus  unity  of  faith,  and 
even  of  opinions,  has  a  meaning,  if  we  would  rever- 
ently heed  it.  Men  struggle  to  be  at  one,  not  only 
in  feeling  but  in  doctrine.  They  break  the  peace  for 
peace'  sake.  He  must  have  read  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church  to  little  good  purpose,  who  does 
not  see  that  its  strifes  have  a  deeper  meaning  than 
mere  strife ;  and  that,  with  clangor  of  hammer  and 
saw,  —  with  the  splitting,  cutting,  and  fashioning  of 
this  celestial,  as  of  our  familiar  earthly  architecture, 
—  the  world  has  been  seeking,  almost  unconsciously 
to  itself,  to  frame  and  build  the  harmonious  temple 
of  Christ. 

The  final  issue,  whatever  may  come  between,  is 
revealed  by  the  Master,  —  "  that  they  may  be  made 
perfect  in  one."  This  union  and  perfection  of  relig- 
ion, so  illustrated  by  the  works  and  so  confirmed  by 
the  word  of  God,  has  two  natural  branches. 

The  final  end  of  the  Gospel  is  to  make  man  one  with 
God.  The  great  work  of  Christ  was  to  bring  about 
this  union.  He  was  the  medium  of  communication 
between  heaven  and  earth,  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  man,  standing  midway,  like  the  angel  in 
the  beautiful  design  of  the  sculptor,  who  is  pointing, 
with  upward  finger,  the  wondering  infant,  released 
from  earth,  to  a  brighter  world  on  high.     The  relig- 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  181 

ious  acts  our  Saviour  inculcated  all  subserved  this 
main  purpose.  Did  he  teach  repentance,  faith,  love, 
obedience,  gratitude,  prayer  ?  They  were  the  means 
and  instrumentalities  of  removing  the  barriers  to  the 
perfect  union  ;  they  were  the  filaments  to  weave  a 
stronger  and  more  incorruptible  bond  of  harmony. 

This  state  of  perfect  reconciliation  with  the  Father 
of  our  spirits  and  Dispenser  of  our  lot  has  been  the 
aspiration  and  effort  of  the  good  and  wise  in  the  past, 
"  the  sacramental  host  of  God."  Indeed,  more  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  this  side  of  religion,  piety, 
than  to  the  other  side,  morality.  The  exertion  has 
been  to  be  just  with  God,  more  than  to  be  just  to 
man. 

But  a  profound  want  of  our  nature  is  met  by 
union  with  God.  We  find  nothing  mystical  or  ab- 
surd in  the  sympathy  of  heart  with  heart;  why 
should  we  in  the  concord  of  the  humblest  mind  on 
earth  with  the  Great  Spirit?  And  if  new  light  and 
power  flow  from  the  interchange  of  thought  with 
thought,  and  intercourse  among  men,  then  how  much 
greater  must  be  the  benefit  to  the  ignorant  and  err- 
ing child  of  the  earth  to  be  brought  into  a  living 
union  with  the  Supreme  Mind !  The  very  term  re- 
ligion^ as  some  derive  it,  signifies  this  binding  again 
of  the  soul,  that  has  drifted  away  from  God,  to  its 
eternal  strength.  For  life  away  from  him  is,  in  real- 
ity, not  life,  but  a  species  of  death.  Not  to  know 
and  love  him  is  not  to  know  and  love  truly  anything 
he  has  made,  not  even  ourselves.     Our  very  self-love 

IG 


182  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

will  be  actual  self-hatred  and  self-rjiin,  unless  the 
blessing  of  this  higher  relationship  be  recognized  and 
sought. 

Observe,  this  must  be  a  living  union ;  not  a  tra- 
ditional and  legendary  conversion,  effected  many 
years  ago,  —  our  Christian  character  justifying  itself 
by  that  single  transaction,  —  but  an  ever-renewed 
alliance  and  good  understanding ;  the  most  lively 
sorrow  following  every  fall  from  the  high  estate  of 
this  divine  intimacy.  To-day,  if  we  will,  we  may 
hear  God  in  the  rushing  rain,  and  see  him  in  the 
bountiful  harvest.  This  present  moment  in  which 
we  dwell  is  full  of  him.  Earth  and  air  and  ocean 
cover  our  board  with  royal  generosity,  and  the 
mighty  sun  has  spent  the  summer  in  ripening  our 
desert.  If  the  lowest  things  of  life  have  tongues  thus 
to  speak  to  us  of  the  All-surrounding  Love,  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  highest,  —  of  thought  and  fancy 
and  feeling,  —  of  art  and  science  and  literature,  —  of 
government,  laws,  and  morals,  —  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  The  whole 
creation,  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual,  has  in  truth 
been  constructed  to  bring  us  into  contact  with  God 
at  every  point,  to  impart  to  the  mind  the  light,  and 
to  pour  into  the  heart  the  life,  of  this  blessed  union. 
•  Consider  its  honor.  This  co-working  with  God, 
as  dear  children,  is  the  chief  privilege  of  man. 
What  folly,  what  insanity,  that  we  should  so  often 
and  willingly  forfeit  it  by  our  sins !  There  is  no 
pride   nor   haughtiness   with  the    Most  High.     He 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  183 

condescends  to  an  infant  as  to  a  Socrates,  and 
abides  with  all  his  glory  equally  in  the  cottage  or 
the  palace  which  is  opened  to  him.  He  has  made 
man,  as  it  were,  a  humble  image  of  himself,  a  mini- 
ature of  the  Infinite.  He  calls  upon  his  child  to  re- 
semble him  by  choice,  as  he  is  formed  to  resemble 
him  by  creation ;  and  to  grow,  as  he  has  been  made, 
in  the  divine  life  and  similitude.  He  has  thus  im- 
parted to  man  even  a  portion  of  his  own  tireative 
power,  and  the  satisfaction  of  being  in  part  self-made. 

By  a  true  and  close  union  with  our  Father  in  heav- 
en, we  are  not  lost  in  him,  absorbed,  and  deprived 
of  the  consciousness  and  identity  of  our  being ;  but 
it  is  in  this  manner  we  truly  find  our  life,  and  come 
to  ourselves ;  it  is  thus  that  the  meek,  the  spiritually- 
minded,  own  and  enjoy  all  things,  enter  into  posses- 
sion of  the  whole  universe,  inherit  earth  and  inherit 
heaven ;  while  he  who  is  out  of  God  and  this  filial 
oneness,  however  rich  he  may  seem  to  be,  has  noth- 
ing, is  disinherited  of  all,  because  he  is  not  rich  to- 
wards God.  Everything  refuses  its  use  to  him,  be- 
cause he  does  not  use  and  enjoy  all  in  God.  "  His 
riches  are  corrupted,  his  garments  moth-eaten,  his 
gold  and  silver  cankered." 

When  we  separate  ourselves  from  the  central  Mind 
and  Heart  of  the  creation,  we  put  ourselves  into  false 
relations  with  all  things  and  beings ;  but  when  we 
maintain  an  unbroken  communion  of  worship,  love, 
and  obedience,  we  place  ourselves  in  such  a  con- 
junction that  all  things  work  together  for  our  good. 


184  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

h 

and  none  for  our  ill ;  the  least  swell  into  generous 
bounties,  and  the  hardest  soften  into  parental  bene- 
dictions ;  —  yea,  pain  and  grief  have  sweet  uses  to 
the  child  of  God. 

And  when  something  worse  comes,  when  the  foul 
blot  of  sin  threatens  to  eclipse  the  light  of  the  soul 
for  ever,  how  does  this  forgiving  Parent  meet  us  a 
great  way  off,  even  in  our  earliest  compunctions  and 
penitence,  and  give  us  no  reluctant  welcome  home, 
but  say,  "  This  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again  ; 
he  was  lost,  and  is  found" !  O  the  mercy  and  long- 
suffering  of  God  I  Eternity  will  be  too  short  to  un- 
derstand the  instances  of  his  care,  and  to  sum  up  the 
multitude  of  his  kindnesses. 

Let  us  set  about  making  this  filial  union  a  most 
practical  and  daily  business  of  our  lives.  It  is  one 
of  the  greatest  ends  for  which  we  have  our  lives  given 
and  preserved.  God  is  a  spirit ;  but  so  are  our  friends 
spirits.  That  characteristic  is  no  bar  to  our  sympa- 
thy with  them  ;  indeed,  it  is  its  very  foundation. 
We  can  talk  to  them.  But  we  can  hold  the  higher 
conversation  of  prayer  with  the  Heavenly  Friend. 
They  can  answer  us.  True;  and  poor  and  imperfect 
enough  their  answers  often  are,  —  smiles  on  false 
cheeks, —  perhaps  tears  from  fond,  but  foolish  eyes,  — 
half-stammered  meanings  of  the  soul,  at  the  best.  But 
the  answers  of  God  are  great  words  of  providence  and 
grace,  that  we  never  can  wholly  forget  or  mistake^ 
because  they  are  always  perfectly  true  and  sincere. 
They  are  cherubim,  standing  in  the  sun  ;  crosses, 


-UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  185 

inscribed  with  encouraging  mottoes,  on  the  sky ; 
bushes,  burning  with  a  divine,  but  unconsuming 
flame ;  now  the  birth-angel  and  now  the  death-angel 
crossing  the  threshold  of  our  home ;  new  influxes  of 
light  and  new  visitings  of  love.  God  speaks  to  us 
with  such  words  as  these.  Have  we  failed  to  study 
even  the  alphabet  of  that  language  which  makes 
them  as  articulate  to  us  as  our  vernacular  tongue  ? 

Union  with  God !  He  in  us  and  we  in  him, 
through  his  Son  and  his  Spirit !  He  in  us  by  his  ful- 
ness of  temporal  good  and  spiritual  blessing ;  we  in 
him  by  our  contented  dependence  and  unquestioning 
love  !  We  will  see  him  in  all  things,  and  all  things 
in  him.  We  will  hear  him  in  the  bird  of  spring  and 
the  fall  of  the  autumn  leaf.  He  condescends  from 
his  infinite  heavens  to  dwell  in  the  souls  of  his  chil- 
dren. We  will  arise  from  our  low  and  worldly  life, 
from  the  dark  places  where  we  shut  out  from  us  the 
pure  light  and  joy  of  the  spirit-world,  and  enter  into 
union  with  God,  even  with  our  God. 

But  thus  far  only  the  half  has  been  said  ;  the  other 
privilege  and  duty  of  our  being  is  union  tvith  man. 
"  Perfect  in  one"  applies  to  men  with  men,  as  to  all 
men  with  God. 

The  ancient  St.  Simon  Stylites  dwelt  thirty-seven 
years  on  the  tops  of  pillars  in  the  open  air,  exposed 
to  all  the  rain  and  cold  and  heat,  that  he  might  cru- 
cify the  body  by  this  lingering  martyrdom,  and  be 
perfectly  joined  to  the  Djlvine  Being.  He  had  his 
reward.     He  was  called  holy,  saint,  and  many  down 

16* 


186  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.^ 

to  this  day  think  he  was  a  very  good  man,  though  in 
a  great  error.  But  his  name  is  never  mentioned  in 
the  habitations  of  sin  and  poverty  as  a  benefactor,  as 
a  son  of  consolation,  who  clothed  the  naked,  fed  the 
hungry,  visited  the  prisoner, -and  comforted  the  sick. 
However  faithful  his  struggle  and  his  self-sacrifice  to 
be  one  with  God,  he  lost  the  other  blessedness  of 
being  one  with  mankind. 

But  it  is  not  sufficient  to  have  a  filial  piety ;  our 
Lord  also  teaches  us  a  fraternal  morality.  When  he 
said,  "  Love  thy  God,"  he  did  not  forget  to  add, 
"  Love  thy  neighbor."  He  showed  what  the  world 
did  not  believe,  and  what  his  own  followers  to  this 
day  find  it  a  great  stretch  of  faith  to  credit,  that 
there  is  never  any  real  opposition  of  men's  interests 
one  with  another.  That  the  good  of  one  is  the  good 
of  all,  and  the  injury  of  one  the  injury  of  all.  That 
no  man  liveth  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.  That  so 
far  as,  by  envy,  anger,  or  pride,  we  cut  ourselves  off 
from  the  sympathies  of  the  great  whole  of  humanity, 
we  lose  a  part  of  the  substantial  good  of  our  being. 
We  voluntarily  withdraw  ourselves,  by  so  doing, 
from  the  ample  range  and  spacious  mansion  assigned 
for  our  abode,  and  consent  to  take  up  our  quarters  in 
narrow  and  mean  apartments.  When  we  give  to 
party,  or  sect,  or  clan,  what  was  meant  for  all  man- 
kind, we  so  far  dwarf  and  dethrone  our  whole  na- 
ture. We  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  good-will  of  a 
single  member  of  the  human  family.  We  are  bound 
to  do  all  we  can,  without  giving  up  our  convictions 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  187 

of  truth  and  duty,  to  preserve  a  kindly  understand- 
ing with  all  men  as  men,  as  our  brethren,  as  dear  to 
the  Heavenly  Parent. 

No  theory  of  government,  no  plan  of  social  organ- 
ization, no  mode  of  education,  and  no  administration 
of  religion,  can  hope  to  succeed  in  benefiting  men, 
that  is  not  based  on  the  Christian  view  of  their  na- 
ture, and  does  not  uphold  the  Christian  morality. 
Too  long  has  the  state  been  esteemed  as  all  in  all, 
and  the  individual  as  little  or  nothing.  Too  long  has 
the  Church  joined  with  the  tyrant  in  pouring  con- 
tempt on  human  nature.  "  Honor  all  men  "  stands 
against  all  these  usurpations,  as  the  bulwark  of  man's 
rights.  The  human  soul  is  the  greatest  thing  on 
earth.  It  transcends  all  cultures,  or  races,  or  colors. 
Mankind  are  one.  They  are  of  one  origin,  one  na- 
ture, one  interest,  and  one  destiny.  All  slaveries, 
therefore,  are  cruelties  in  the  family ;  all  wars,  mur- 
ders under  the  same  roof.  And  whatever  harms  one, 
with  the  certainty  of  gravitation  harms  all.  The  life 
of  humanity  is  one.  And  every  drop  of  blood  un- 
justly shed,  every  wrong  and  oppression  and  cruelty, 
is  treason  against  the  majesty  of  the  race,  against 
the  life  and  peace  and  virtue  of  unnumbered  and  in- 
numerable millions.  And  not  one  individual  can 
live  so  remote  or  sequestered  a  life  as  not  to  feel  for 
better  or  for  worse  the  influence  of  the  mighty  whole. 
No  people,  however  lifted  up  to  heaven  in  point  of 
power  or  privilege,  can  long  flourish  in  hostility  to 
the  liberties  and  peace   of  the   rest  of  the  world. 


188  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

Proud  Babylon  may  exalt  herself,  but  Babylon  must 
one  day  lie  as  low  as  the  humblest  village  she  ever 
laki  waste  with  fire  and  sword.  Imperial  Rome 
may  flaunt  her  glories  before  high  Heaven;  but 
against  the  queen  of  the  earth,  too,  is  written  de- 
cline and  downfall. 

Through  the  medium  of  bread  and  tea  and  poli- 
tics, we  are  interested  in  Ireland  and  China  and  Cir- 
cassia ;  much  more,  through  the  all-diffusive  senti- 
ment of  human  brotherhood,  we  are  concerned  for 
every  land,  however  remote,  for  every  tribe,  however 
barbarous.  In  this  unity  of  the  race  and  of  man,  in 
this  fraternity  of  the  nations  alone,  can  any  one  peo- 
ple attain  to  its  highest  prosperity  and  happiness. 
One  air  enwraps  the  whole  globe,  and  one  sun  shines 
every  day  upon  all.  Nature  teaches  us  the  identity 
of  human  interests ;  and  the  Gospel,  with  a  sublime 
generalization,  pronounces  the  multifarious  races 
bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  and  sinks  in 
one  impartial  love  the  inequalities  of  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, bond  and  free. 

Peace  would  be  but  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  union 
of  man  with  man;  for  peace,  as  generally  under- 
stood and  practised,  has  been  but  a  species  of  armed 
neutrality.  If  men  have  forborne  to  work  one 
another  ill,  they  have  neglected,  in  this  false  doctrine 
of  selfishness,  this  short-sighted  and  temporary  pol- 
icy and  so-called  expediency,  to  work  one  another 
good.  Civilized  and  Christian  society,  too,  has  often 
been  only  a  milder  type  of  civil  war ;  class  against 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  189 

class,  church  against  church,  and  town  against  town. 
The  day  when  men  shall  be  made  perfect  in  their  so- 
cial union  and  cooperation  has  not  yet  arrived.  But 
the  commandments  of  Christ  have  not  spent  their 
vital  force.  They  are  the  word  of  the  day,  and  of  all 
days.  They  contain  the  germs  of  a  new  civilization, 
as  much  superior  to  life  in  England  or  America  as 
that  exceeds  the  brutality  of  New  Zealand.  The 
heavenly  laws,  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  and 
"  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  even  so  to  them,"  embody  the  lofty  ideal  of  a  new 
morality ;  as  the  command,  "  Love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,"  inculcates  a  perfect  piety. 

The  true  disciple  of  Christ,  therefore,  or  he  who 
wishes  for  the  true  perfection  and  happiness  of  his 
being,  will  study  to  be  at  one  with  his  Heavenly 
Father,  and  to  be  at  one  with  his  earthly  brethren. 
This  is  the  true  at-one-ment  and  reconciliation,  not  in 
the  dead  letter  of  an  antiquated  theology,  but  in  the 
living  and  life-giving  spirit  of  divine  truth.  Jesus 
came  to  unite  man  with  man,  and  man  with  God, 
and  all  real  progress  of  his  religion  will  exhibit  this 
result.  He  lived  and  died  for  this  cause.  The  song 
at  his  birth  was  peace  ;  and  his  farewell  blessing  was 
peace. 

And  when  we  strive  after  the  earnest  communion 
of  the  finite  with  the  Infinite  in  a  humble  and  con- 
fiding piety,  and  after  perfect  love  in  every  human 
relation,  all  other  difficulties  are  in  the  way  of  being 


190  UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN. 

quickly  solved.  When  these  two  pillars  stand,  the 
whole  social  and  spiritual  fabric  is  safe.  No  lasting 
grief  can  root  itself  in  a  nature  that  is  daily  passing 
into  the  life  of  these  magnanimous  sentiments.  The 
solid  gloom  of  a  sceptic  misanthropy,  a  stoical  con- 
tempt, or  an  atheistic  indifference  whether  God  rule 
above  or  man  sin  and  suffer  below,  fly  like  the  morn- 
ing mist  before  the  rising  sun.  This  human  and 
divine  union  is  the  solvent  for  all  sins  and  all  sor- 
rows. It  has  the  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and 
that  which  is  to  come. 

What  a  blessing  would  descend  upon  families  if 
this  union  were  cherished  !  What  a  glory  would  in- 
vest the  nations,  if  they  would  regard  themselves  but 
as  greater  families  of  God  !  What  a  sublime  bless- 
edness would  rest  on  the  whole  moral  earth,  if,  like 
the  material,  it  were  bound  in  everlasting  gravitation 
to  its  great  centre,  and  revolved  in  unconflicting  har- 
mony with  its  own  system  I 

There  has  been  a  Greek  Church  of  Christ,  but  it 
has  partaken  largely  of  the  old  mysteries  and  my- 
thologies that  went  before  it  on  the  same  soil. 
There  has  been  a  Roman  Church  of  Christ,  but  it 
has  had  in  it  a  great  deal  more  of  Caesar  than  of 
God.  There  has  been  an  English  Church  of  Christ, 
but  its  hierarchy  of  principalities  and  powers  has 
savored  strongly  of  the  dark  and  feudal  ages.  There 
have  been  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  Churches  of 
Christ,  but  they  have  embodied  and  preserved  with 
fossil  permanency  the  errors  and  whims  of  individual 


UNION    WITH    GOD    AND    MAN.  191 

and  erring  men.  Let  there  arise,  then,  a  Universal 
Church  of  Christ,  a  new  and  holier  fabric,  partaking 
of  the  spirit  of  "  Liberty,  Holiness,  Love"  ;  the  cre- 
ation of  a  new  world ;  large  and  equal  and  practi- 
cal ;  adequate  to  the  age  in  which  we  live,  and  all 
ages  ;  combining  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  piety 
and  morality,  faith  and  works,  religion  and  philan- 
thropy, in  bonds  never  to  be  broken.  For  such  a 
Church,  to  come  out  of  the  present  dismembered  and 
fragmentary  condition  of  Protestant  Christendom, 
let  us  pray  with  faith,  and  labor  with  zeal,  and  God 
may  yet  grant  to  our  prayers  and  labors  a  glorious 
fulfilment. 


DISCOURSE    XI. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS. 


BUT    WHEN    THE    FULNESS    OF    THE    TIME     WAS    COME.   GOD    SENT 

FORTH  HIS  SON.  —  Galatians  iv.  4. 


The  birth  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind  is  an  event 
fit  to  be  observed  with  a  perpetual  celebration.  The 
poets  have  wreathed  for  it  their  most  graceful  gar- 
lands of  song,  devotion  has  uttered  her  most  ardent 
prayers  of  gratitude,  custom  and  tradition  have  accu- 
mulated their  venerable  associations,  and  reform  and 
philanthropy  centre  here  their  brightest  hopes  for  the 
world.  For  here  is  the  last,  best  gift  of  God.  When 
he  had  poured  out  all  his  treasures  of  wisdom, 
power,  and  beneficence,  in  the  ordinary  methods  of 
earth,  air,  seas,  stars,  and  vegetable  and  animal  and 
human  life,  he  gave  as  it  were  himself  at  last  to  the 
immortals  he  would  educate  for  eternal  life.  He 
crowns  Nature  with  Providence,  and  Providence 
with  Hevelation,  and  earth  with  heaven,  and  opens 
an  ever  better  and  higher  good  to  the  ceaseless  ascent 
of  the  human  mind.  He  who  planted  in  us  an  eter- 
nal aspiration,  has  not  failed  in  giving  it  an  eternal 
supply. 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  193 

When  the  angel  said  to  the  shepherds,  who  were 
sore  afraid  at  the  glory  which  shone  round  about 
them,  "  Fear  not,  for  behold  I  bring  you  good  tidings 
of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people,"  he  pro- 
nounced the  word  of  all  time  :  —  Joy,  that  a  Saviour 
was  born,  that  the  Heavenly  Father  gave  a  new  and 
brighter  token,  in  the  advancing  race,  of  his  exhaust- 
less  mercy, — joy,  that  hope,  not  fear,  love,  not 
hatred,  happiness,  not  misery,  life,  not  death,  was  to 
be  the  rule  and  destiny  of  man ;  — joy,  that  the  ful- 
ness of  time  had  come,  that  mankind  were  prepared 
for  the  new  age,  that  the  expectations  of  many  gen- 
erations were  to  be  fulfilled,  that  the  year  of  jubilee 
had  come,  the  year  of  years,  and  the  age  of  ages. 

Let,  then,  joy  be  the  key-note.  Why,  when  God 
designs  to  do  the  greatest  good  to  man,  should  he  be 
so  dismal  and  abject  in  receiving  it  ?  Let  the  king's 
son  receive  the  king's  gift  in  a  kingly  manner.  Be 
children  happy  in  their  way,  for  it  is  nature's  lyric  of 
exultation  for  the  Christ  child,  the  Kriss  Kringle,  in 
the  beautiful  German  diminutive.  Be  manhood 
happy  in  its  expanded  strength,  for  there  is  an  in- 
tenser  joy  and  a  serener  peace  in  Christ  the  man.  Be 
old  age  joyful,  too,  for  though  that  was  a  period 
Jesus  never  lived,  yet  he  has  left  for  it  its  sufficient 
consolation  in  the  decline  of  bodily  powers  by  the 
ingrafting  of  a  life  ever  fresh  and  youthful,  the  life 
of  truth,  love,  hope,  faith,  peace ;  a  life  that  has  no 
"  sere  and  yellow  leaf"  to  its  mellow  autumn,  no  ice 
and  frost  to  its  dying  winter.     The  Puritans  rejected 

17 


194  THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

Christmas,  because  they  were  afraid  of  even  a  shred 
or  rag  of  the  scarlet  woman  of  Rome,  or  what  they 
deemed  her  twin-sister  of  England.  But  their  great 
poet,  Milton,  sang  its  glories  and  joys  in  one  of  the 
finest  lyrics  in  the  language ;  and  as  time  has  sped, 
its  commemoration  has  been  increased  every  year 
among  their  descendants. 

Humanity  asleep,  and  lying  almost  at  death's  door, 
wakes  up  slowly,  but  it  does  awake,  and  arises  at 
last,  and  shakes  itself,  and  goes  forth  to  its  labor 
and  work  until  the  evening.  In  the  first  ages  of  the 
Church,  the  effect  of  Pagan  and  Jewish  customs  of 
thousands  of  years  is  observable  in  all  the  ceremo- 
nies and  great  days  of  the  Church.  The  elements 
still  cling  to  the  body  and  form  of  existing  Chris- 
tianity, and  have  some  foothold  in  nearly  every 
religious  body.  But  because  our  fathers  Judaized  or 
Paganized,  there  is  no  occasion  for  us  to  unhuman- 
ize  ourselves.  The  fruit  is  not  the  soil,  but  the  fruit 
must  grow  in  the  soil  to  come  to  perfection.  And 
the  tree  of  Christianity,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  nations,  had  its  rooting  and  first  growth 
in  beggarly  elements,  and  three  or  four  centuries 
after  his  ascension,  Jesus  would  not  have  known  his 
own  Church  ;  —  he  might  find  it  difficult  even  now. 

But  the  tendency  of  Protestantism,  and  of  Unita- 
rianism,  the  Protestantism  of  Protestantism,  is  too 
much  to  denial  and  neglect  of  the  concrete,  bodily 
form  of  the  Gospel.  It  substitutes  reasons  for  feel- 
ings, and  convictions  for  faith.     Many  of  the  Protes- 


THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS.  195 

tant  churches  leave  the  record  of  Christ's  life  for 
intellectual  creeds,  as  the  Greek  and  Romish  Churches 
do  for  sensuous  rites.  But  Christianity  has  a  con- 
crete side  as  well  as  an  abstract.  Its  Founder  was 
very  nigh  to  man,  as  he  was  very  nigh  to  God.  His 
principles  were  divine,  but  his  agents  were  human. 
He  eat,  drank,  slept,  walked,  was  weary,  conversed, 
worshipped,  used  the  words  of  his  day,  worked  events, 
scenes,  birds,  lilies,  into  his  discourse,  came  not  to 
destroy  the  Law  or  the  Prophets,  but  to  fulfil,  to  at- 
tempt not  to  sweep  away  all  existing  usages  and 
opinions,  but  to  graft  in  a  new  life  on  the  stock, — 
that  when  that  which  was  perfect  was  come,  then 
that  which  was  in  part  might  be  done  away.  Hence 
he  attended  the  synagogue  worship,  while  he  led 
men  to  a  higher  worship.  He  was  a  Jewish  Messiah, 
and  yet  a  universal  Saviour.  All  the  little  joys, 
pleasures,  connections,  and  kindly  sympathies  of  our 
race,  he  treated  with  delicacy  and  respect.  The 
child  he  did  not  overlook,  the  beggar  he  called  and 
healed.  He  talked  as  affably  with  the  Samaritan 
woman  at  the  well,  as  with  Nicodemus,  the  mem- 
ber of  the  national  Sanhedrim.  So  thoroughly  im- 
mersed and  pervaded  was  he  with  all  the  charities, 
usages,  and  sentiments  of  his  day,  while  he  rose  above 
them  all  in  his  glorious  faith  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God,  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

And  we  still  need  the  concrete,  historical,  and 
traditional,  for  we  are  flesh  and  blood,  not  spirit  and 
ether.     The  great  days  of  the  Church  are  days  of 


196  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

high  sentiments,  as  are  those  of  the  State.  Christ- 
mas, the  memory  of  the  birth,  Easter,  the  memory  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  are  as  natural  to  keep 
for  piety,  as  the  22d  of  February,  the  day  of  Wash- 
ington's birth,  and  the  4th  of  July,  the  day  of  Inde- 
pendence, are  for  patriotism.  And  he  would  suc- 
ceed as  little  who  should  attempt  to  eliminate  the 
essence  of  love  of  country  out  of  all  forms,  and  pre- 
serve it  living  and  commanding  in  a  pure  abstrac- 
tion, as  he  who  should  discard  all  religious  institu- 
tions, and  resolve  the  hallowed  days,  places,  and 
persons  all  back  into  the  disembodied  sentiments 
from  which  they  emerged.  Philosophy  can  talk  to 
us  of  truth,  but  it  is  in  the  cold,  dry  light  of  reason. 
It  is  the  office  of  religion  to  incarnate  truth  in  love  ; 
to  show  us  truth,  but  truth  living,  warm,  and  vivify- 
ing ;  to  reveal,  not  the  intellect,  but  the  heart  of  God ; 
to  lead  us  up  from  this  eternal  and  fruitless  chase 
after  the  abstract  and  interior  essence  of  things,  to 
that  mighty  and  conscious  centre  of  the  universe, 
where  we  and  all  things  have  our  being.  We  want 
philosophy,  that  is,  truth,  the  reality  of  things,  but  it 
would  be  good  for  nothing  without  love,  for  only  that 
can  be  good  which  has  a  good  purpose  and  springs 
from  love.  Truth  in  love  is  the  highest  point  we  can 
attain.  Then  we  are  armed  in  the  mind,  and  armed 
in  the  heart,  unto  every  emergency.  Nothing  can 
go  beyond  or  get  round  truth  in  one,  and  love  in 
the  other,  —  truth  for  extent,  and  love  for  quality,  the 
two  poles  of  our  being,  holding  all  things  midway, 
continent  and  ocean. 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  197 

It  is  a  healthy  symptom,  then,  when  the  faith  of 
the  moral  and  spiritual  Christ,  the  Christ  of  human 
consciousness,  is  most  pure  and  growing,  that  the 
observances  and  honors  of  the  historical  Christ 
should  be  green  and  flourishing; — that  the  birth  of 
Christ,  his  death,  his  ascension,  should  be  kept  in 
lively  and  impassioned  remembrance; — that  the 
poet  should  give  his  hymn,  and  the  speaker  his  ad- 
dress;—  that  joy^hould  hold  her  festival,  and  pathos 
and  gratitude  sing  a  jubilant  and  triumphant  strain. 

The  birth  of  Jesus, — Son  of  Man  in  the  flesh.  Son  of 
God  in  the  spirit,  —  born  not  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  or 
the  will  of  man, — befalling  in  the  fulness  of  time,  when 
the  world  had  exhausted  its  own  philosophies  and  ex- 
periments, and  was  ready  for  a  new  advance,  —  a  birth 
so  heralded  and  preannounced,  —  so  taking  place, — 
a  manger  for  a  cradle,  a  stable  for  a  nursery,  angels  for 
choristers,  and  shepherds  for  attendants  and  messen- 
gers, —  wise  men  from  the  East  with  their  gifts,  and 
holy  Simeon  and  Anna  of  the  temple,  prophet  and 
prophetess,  with  their  benedictions,  for  godfathers  and 
godmothers,  —  the  birth  so  obscure  contrasted  with 
the  oflice  so  transcendent,  —  so  humble  a  child  ris- 
ing to  be  the  leader  at  thirty  years  of  the  human 
race,  not  in  lower  matters,  but  in  the  highest,  —  in 
the  art  and  conduct  of  life,  in  the  relation  of  man  to 
the  Infinite  and  the  Eternal  ;  —  here  is  cause  of  won- 
der, and  joy,  and  gratitude,  if  we  were  only  specta- 
tors of  the  scene  ;  how  much  more  when  we  have  part 
and  lot  in  the  same,  —  when  his  truth  is  our  truth, 

17* 


198 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 


his  love  our  love,  when  he  conquers  a  rude  and  un- 
vanquished  part  of  nature  and  time  for  us,  and  gives 
us  the  victory  over  evil  and  the  fear  of  death,  and 
imparts  to  his  followers  the  freedom  and  citizenship 
of  the  universe  and  of  immortality  ! 

History  has  been  called  philosophy  teaching  by 
example;  but  a  history  is  just  as  much  religion,  as 
philosophy,  teaching  by  example.  History,  indeed, 
would  seem  more  fit  in  its  scenes  and  passions  to 
teach  love  than  truth,  religion  than  philosophy. 
There  are  those  who  object  to  the  call  for  faith  in 
the  historical  Christ,  who  place  their  faith  in  the 
Christ  within  them,  the  Christ  of  consciousness,  the 
sentiments  and  affections  of  their  higher  nature. 
But  unless  this  faint  and  effaced  handwriting  on 
their  souls  had  been  brought  to  the  fire  of  the  living 
and  dying  Christ,  what  distinct  moral  lines,  well- 
ordered  alphabet  and  language  of  spiritual  truth  and 
love,  should  we  have  discerned  in  those  whose  na- 
tures are  now  luminous  with  the  light  and  heat  of 
spirituality.  Patriotism  is  a  great  sentiment,  and 
we  cannot  spare  it,  but  neither  can  we  spare  the 
Washingtons  and  Sydneys  and  Hampdens  who 
illustrate  it.  Plato  can  write  of  the  New  Atlantis, 
or  the  Fortunate  Isles,  and  Harrington  portray  a  Re- 
public of  the  fabled  Oceana,  and  Sir  Thomas  More 
one  of  Utopia;  but  one  incarnated  Washington, 
one  incarnated  America  of  Free  Institutions,  does 
more  to  rouse  the  energies  of  mankind  for  practical 
emancipation  and  deliverance  from  the  tyrannies  of 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  199 

the  earth,  than  all  the  labors  of  the  wise  and  learned, 
when  they  range  the  field  of  fiction  and  philosophic 
ideality. 

As  a  form  of  teaching,  history  never  tires.  We 
read  and  re-read  the  lives  of  men  for  the  hundredth 
time,  and  always  from  a  new  position.  For  they  are 
living;  they  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter ;  they  solve 
the  practical  difficulty,  they  cut  the  Gordian  knot, 
they  face  the  evil,  the  danger,  the  fear ;  they  con- 
quer. New  histories,  new  lives,  are  written  of  the 
oldest  times  and  men,  and  they  are  always  interest- 
ing, always  instructive,  provided  only  they  are  told 
in  a  new  and  truer  vein  than  before,  with  a  more 
interior  vision,  a  more  face  to  face  and  daguerreo- 
typed  likeness,  with  a  deeper  or  more  charitable 
construction  of  motives ;  for  example,  Niebuhr  and 
Arnold  write  of  Rome ;  Grote,  of  Greece ;  Kenrick,  of 
Egypt ;  Layard,  of  Nineveh  ;  Carlyle,  of  Mahomet, 
Saxon  England,  and  Frederic  the  Great.  To  this  field 
belongs  this  wonderful  history  of  Christ.  And  every 
Hew-comer  takes  a  new  point  of  view  to  survey  the 
fulness  and  perfection  of  Jesus.  Thomas  h.  Kempis, 
Scougal,  Fenelon,  Woolman,  Ware,  Furness,  — 
some  higher  and  some  lower,  but  a  new  biography  each 
time  is  given,  written  in  word,  or  lived  in  character. 

In  this  sense,  history  is  inexhaustible  and  untiring. 
A  good  history  of  England,  of  America,  is  ever  the 
latest,  last  want,  and  write  well  as  one  may,  Hume, 
SmoUet,  Bancroft,  Hildreth,  his  neighbor  always 
Cometh  and  searcheth  him  out,  gains  a  new  vantage- 


200 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 


ground,  makes  his  facts  tell  a  better  tale,  rises  to 
higher  and  broader  principles,  and  settles  long  dis- 
puted questions  on  new  grounds  of  evidence,  or  the 
results  of  society. 

So  has  the  history  of  Christianity,  and  the  life 
of  its  Author,  and  of  his  Apostles,  to  be  studied  long, 
and  from  new  points  of  view,  and  in  different  modes 
of  mind,  and  in  varying  stages  of  society,  before  we 
see  all  the  riches  of  this  volume,  all  the  laws,  mo- 
tives, principles,  influences,  and  tendencies  that 
branch  forth  from  the  Christ.  Men  before  thought 
they  had  done  much  in  this  sphere,  but  when  Luther 
comes,  or  Swedenborg  or  Neander  writes,  or  Butler, 
the  Christian  world  can  never  be  as  it  was  before ; 
even  the  life  of  all  lives  is  seen  through  an  altered 
medium  and  atmosphere  of  our  own  minds.  This 
study  of  the  history  of  Christ  and  his  religion  is  a 
great  desideratum  ;  it  is  too  much  neglected,  and 
when  attended  to,  is  not  always  pursued  with  right 
views  and  purposes. 

The  glory  of  the  Gospel  is  not  simply  in  itself,  con- 
sidered abstractly  from  all  human  society,  but  also  in 
its  multiplied,  heaven-designed  adaptations.  Its  his- 
torical, traditional  character  is  one  of  these.  It  has 
its  lives  with  other  lives,  its  heroes  with  other  heroes, 
though  different  in  character,  its  biographies  and  let- 
ters and  discourses  with  other  biographies,  letters, 
and  discourses.  We  can  easily  conceive  of  this 
truth  having  been  communicated  in  other  ways,  and, 
if   man  were   endowed  with   intellect  alone,  ways 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  201 

equally  efficient  as  the  present.  The  truth  might 
have  been  traced  in  blazing  and  ever-burning  charac- 
ters along  the  over-arching  sky,  or  painted  on  the 
leaves  of  the  forest,  or  muttered  in  the  rippling  brook, 
or  sounded  abroad  by  the  thunder.  For  in  a^  these 
ways  are  not  lessons  continually  taught  us,  and  it 
needed  but  a  step  more  to  teach  still  more  and  bet- 
ter ones,  a  yet  livelier  wisdom,  a  warmer  love,  a 
more  articulate  and  impressive  purpose  of  the  be- 
nignant Father  of  all?  But  not  so  have  we  been 
made,  and  not  so  does  he,  who  knows  what  we  are 
and  will  be,  treat  us.  We  are  beings  of  will,  power 
of  choice,  affections,  motives.  And  we  wanted,  in 
order  to  be  persuaded  in  our  heart  of  hearts  of  the 
infinite  loveliness  of  virtue,  not  a  cold  revelation  let- 
tered on  the  sky,  not  a  brighter  sun,  not  a  softer 
moon,  not  sweeter  music  of  bird,  waterfall,  or  sighing 
winds,  or  ocean's  haughty  roar,  but  we  needed  inex- 
pressibly a  revelation  of  living  warmth,  spoken  by 
living  lips,  gushing  up  from  places  too  deep  for  tears, 
and  too  sacred  for  aught  but  the  holy  eye  of  God, 
and  acted,  toiled,  wept,  suffered,  agonized,  and  ec- 
stasized out,  as  ours  is,  from  day  to  day,  through  all 
this  wondrous  life  of  man  on  the  earth.  Such  is 
Jesus,  as  he  appears  before  us  in  that  simple  record 
of  the  Gospels.  Say  what  men  may  of  the  credibil- 
ity of  the  books,  and  their  genuineness  and  authenti- 
city, there  is  the  problem,  —  if  such  a  being  as  Jesus 
had  not  existed,  they  would  have  been  eminently 
miraculous   who   fabricated   such  a   character,  and 


202  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

agreed  in  it,  as  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John 
have  done  in  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Acts,  and  Paul, 
James,  Peter,  and  John  in  the  Epistles  and  Revela- 
tion. While,  if  we  admit  that  Jesus  did  live,  just  as 
we  admit  without  a  question  that  Csesar  or  Epam- 
inondas  lived,  then  all  is  clear  and  satisfactory; 
sufficient  causes  are  assigned  for  the  events  which 
followed,  and  the  Christ  of  history  became  just  as 
real,  and  in  one  sense  we  may  say  as  natural  a  being, 
as  the  Socrates  or  the  Cicero  of  history. 

This  historical  belief  I  am  far  from  presenting  to 
you  as  the  all  in  all  of  Christian  faith.  We  may 
believe  that  Homer  lived,  and  not  care  particularly 
what  he  thought  about  Jupiter,  or  taught  about  re- 
venge, or  slander,  or  hypocrisy,  or  any  other  vice.  But 
Jesus  enters  into  personal  relations.  He  says,  Thou. 
He  pricks  the  conscience.  He  moves  the  heart. 
He  knocks  at  the  door.  His  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world,  —  guards,  palaces,  power,  fame,  sword,  or 
sceptre  he  had  none  ;  his  royal  domain  is  within,  — 
the  field  of  thought,  the  world  of  spiritual  being,  the 
sphere  of  motives,  —  the  decisions  of  conscience,  the 
rise  and  fall  of  this  sensitive,  throbbing  breast,  the 
outlook  of  this  quick,  anxious,  foreseeing  spirit,  — 
all  this  —  and  how  much  it  is,  pent  up  in  the  walls 
of  this  little  frame !  —  is  the  territory  which  this 
pacific  Conqueror  comes  to  take  possession  of,  and 
make  his  own,  and  change  the  wild  jungle  of  nature 
into  the  well-ordered  and  fruitful  field,  —  what  is 
sour  sweeten,  what  is  barren  enrich,  what  is  crooked 
straighten,  what  is  weak  strengthen  and  vivify. 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  203 

And  there  is  no  length  of  wild  fanaticism,  or  stu- 
pid and  brutal  ignorance,  or  set  bigotry,  or  bloody- 
persecution,  or  sanguinary  wars,  to  which  not  the 
world,  but  the  disciples  of  the  benign  Jesus,  might  not 
revert,  and  persist  in,  were  it  not  for  the  new  reckon- 
ing we  can  take  at  any  time  to  correct  these  obser- 
vations, by  applying  to  the  Gospels.  These  are  the 
compass  and  needle,  quadrant  and  practical  naviga- 
tor. In  dark  ages,  "  when  neither  sun  nor  stars 
in  many  days  appeared,"  —  in  tumultuous  and  agi- 
tated periods,  when  "  no  small  tempest  lay  on  us," 
and  all  hope  that  the  world  could  be  saved  was  taken 
away,  —  this  is  the  pole-star  to  correct  our  voyage, 
an  observation  of  the  sun  which  by  computation  can 
steer  us  aright  on  the  most  boisterous  sea. 

Men  are  very  low,  and  they  are  to  be  raised  very 
high.  We  must  not  be  dainty  how  we  help  them, 
and  use  only  our  conceited  methods.  We  seize 
what  is  at  hand,  a  rope,  a  pole,  to  lift  a  man  out  of  a 
well,  or  save  him  from  the  river.  It  is  very  idle  in 
us  to  say  that  such  and  such  institutions  are  not 
worthy  of  God,  as  if  he  did  not  use  all  institutions  and 
influences  to  mould  and  dye  and  fashion  and  season 
and  temper  his  human  handiwork,  —  cold,  heat,  work, 
play,  father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  lover,  the  loss  and 
gain,  the  joy  and  the  grief,  the  evil  and  the  good, 
school,  academy,  and  university  of  his  mighty  world. 
Why  not  prophet  and  priest,  Moses  and  Christ, 
tabernacles  and  incense,  a  little  bread  and  wine,  a 
written  book,  religious  rites,  a  few  drops  of  water,  a 


204  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

few  syllables  in  the  ear,  a  kneeling  posture,  a  closed 
eye,  an  uplifted  heart,  a  murmured  prayer,  a  har- 
mony of  sound,  hours  and  days,  the  Christmas  and 
the  Easter,  the  hallelujahs  of  the  angels,  and  the  ejac- 
ulations of  the  cross  ?  Life  is  buried  in  the  concrete, 
—  we  are  walking  flesh  and  bones.  Why  not  sup- 
pose religion  would  share  in  the  same  law  of  all  our 
powers  and  affections,  —  would  be  symbolized,  mate- 
rialized, illustrated,  exemplified,  commemorated,  and 
that,  however  humble  the  details,  —  be  it  the  hem 
or  the  rings  of  the  tabernacle,  or  the  elements  of  the 
Supper,  or  the  posture  of  worship,  —  all  would  bor- 
row dignity  and  grace,  however  lowly  they  might 
be  in  human  apprehension,  from  the  infinite  grand- 
eur of  the  end  they  are  to  subserve.  The  posts  and 
iron  wires  are  rather  a  blemish  than  otherwise,  which 
follow  ottr  roads,  and  disfigure  the  landscape,  but 
then  they  carry  the  lightning.  And  nothing  is 
small,  nothing  is  mean  or  despicable,  that  carries 
light,  though  it  be  but  a  single  ray,  to  an  immortal 
soul.  The  subject,  the  end,  dignifies,  greatens,  glori- 
fies the  alphabet  or  the  multiplication-table  of  moral, 
as  of  mental  training,  —  and  all  the  loftiest  souls  of 
glory  and  of  God  could  remember  when  they  began 
with  cradle  hymns,  and  evening  prayers,  until  they 
caught  the  ethereal  essence  of  devotion,  and  could 
join  cherub  and  seraph  in  their  life  of  truth  and  life  of 
love. 

Hail,  then,  to  all  the  diversified  means  by  which 
we  receive  our   Christian  nurture !     We  cannot  de- 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS.  205 

spise,  or  spare  one.  The  Bible  would  be  a  very  dull 
book,  if  they  who  are  evil  were  not  put  in,  as  well  as 
the  good.  We  have  to  use  no  caution  lest  our  youth 
will  copy  Jezebel  or  Judas.  It  would  be  a  most  un- 
natural book,  if  there  were  not  in  it  the  flashings-up 
of  the  ill-pent  fires  of  anger,  and  the  blasting  flames 
of  lust,  —  for  this  is  human  life ;  and  how  can  the 
heaven-ascending  sentiments  begin,  except  on  the 
lowly  floor  of  man's  present  abode?  Hail,  then,  to 
the  earthen  vessel  which  holds  the  diviner  treasure  ! 
The  water  would  be  spilled  were  it  not  for  the  pitch- 
er of  the  woman  at  the  well.  Hail  to  the  blessed 
Christmas  I  Grant  that  the  word  is  bad,  —  Christ- 
mas, the  mass  of  Christ,  —  Papal  terms;  grant  that 
the  precise  day,  and  even  the  precise  year,  are  un- 
known, that  folly  and  superstition  have  often  ruled 
the  usage,  or  that  even  now  there  is  more  powder  than 
piety,  more  show  and  extravagance  and  merry-mak- 
ing than  are  compatible  with  the  birth  celebration 
of  the  lowly  Redeemer,  who  had  not  where  to  lay  his 
head,  from  the  manger,  his  first  resting-place,  to  the 
cross,  his  last.  But  who  would  give  it  up  ?  Who 
would  not  feel  an  appalling  absence  if  the  birthday 
of  the  Saviour  were  made  a  common  day  back  again  ? 
Who  can  calculate  the  refined  and  hallowed  associ- 
ations that  have  entwined  themselves  around  the 
youthful  spirit,  and  made  his  Saviour  real  to  him  ? 
Who  can  see  the  crowd  of  happy  faces  around  a 
Christmas-tree,  in  expectancy  of  the  coming  gift 
plucked  from  its  branches,  or  the  eager  and  happy 

18 


206  THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

crowds,  for  once  free,  pouring  through  the  streets,  or 
listen  to  the  hearty  salutations  of  young  and  old, 
and  not  feel  that  merry,  happy,  joyful  spirits  inspired 
the  hour,  and  that  it  is  something  to  associate  for 
ever  with  the  Gospel  and  its  opening  day  on  the 
world,  gladness,  and  gratitude,  and  gifts,  and  gener- 
osity to  the  poor,  and  remembrance  of  friends,  and 
burial  of  old  grudges,  and  the  concluding  year,  illu- 
minated, and  transfigured  by  a  burst  of  lyrical  pleas- 
ure, — joy  at  home,  joy  in  the  Church,  joy  in  society, 
joy  in  the  spirit  ?  For  once  we  will  give  wings  to 
our  devotion,  and  spurn  the  dull  clog  of  our  labor, 
our  prudence,  and  our  fear;  we  will  sing  the  angels' 
song,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace,  good-will  towards  men."  We  will  bring 
myrrh,  frankincense,  and  gold,  if  not  to  him,  the 
chief,  yet  to  his  little  ones,  whom  he  loved  and  blessed, 
and  of  whom  he  once  was.  All  thanks  that  faith 
in  him  is  no  chill  and  solitary  act,  no  cold  assent 
and  hard  intellectual  conviction,  but  emotional,  lyri- 
cal, affectionate,  —  that  it  stands  not  in  the  midst 
of  the  utter  desolation  of  all  the  finer  and  more  child- 
like sentiments,  memories,  graces,  and  joys,  but  is  to 
be  wreathed  around  with  all  manner  of  kindly  sym- 
pathies, happy  memories,  and  happier  hopes,  bright 
and  golden  associations,  made  of  earth,  but  colored 
and  prismatized  from  heaven!  Kriss  Kringle  the 
child  will  plant  a  seed  in  the  heart  that  Christ  the 
King  will  ripen  into  immortal  fruits.  Why  despise 
the  lowest  rounds  of  the  ladder  on  which  we  climb 
to  our  heavenly  destiny  ? 


THE    BIRTH    OF   JESUS.  207 

And  while  the  falling  sands  of  the  year  tell  us  once 
again  that  our  life  is  swift  and  irrevocable, — 

"  Blazing  a  moment,  then  sunk  in  night," — 

a  point  between  the  eternities, —  how  needful  and 
happy  it  is,  that,  when  we  might  sink  down  in  de- 
spair of  ever  being  or  doing  any  good,  this  cheery  and 
hope-inspiring  festival  comes  to  tell  us  in  so  many 
words  to  be  of  good  cheer,  and  "hope  on,  hope  ever," 
for  there  was  once  a  Christ  on  earth,  friend  of  ours 
and  every  human  soul,  and  there  is  ever  a  Christ  in 
heaven,  kind,  holy,  and  beautiful  I 


DISCOURSE    XII 


THE  THREEFOLD   CHEIST. 


AND   WE   BELIEVE   AND   ARE    SURE   THAT   THOU   ART   THAT    CHRIST, 
THE    SON   OF   THE   LIVING   GOD.  —  Johll  vi.  69. 


The  glad  occasion  of  our  annual  commemoration 
of  the  birth  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  has  again  re- 
turned. 

"  It  was  the  winter  wild, 
While  the  heaven-born  child 
All  meanly  wrapped  in  the  rude  manger  lies." 

Many  circumstances,  upon  which  we  have  heretofore 
dwelt  at  this  service  of  Christmas,  gave  a  tender  and 
pathetic  charm  to  that  ancient  night  at  Bethlehem. 
But  what  lends  its  chief  interest  to  all  celebrations 
of  the  Author  of  our  Faith,  whether,  as  now,  of  his 
birth,  or,  as  at  the  Supper,  of  his  death,  is  that  he 
was,  as  "we  believe  and  are  sure,  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God."  He  came  forth,  in  a  sense 
different  from  that  of  any  other  being,  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Infinite  Father.  That  eminent  fact 
alone  is  worth  an  eternal  jubilee  of  gratitude.  Could 
we  have  a  proper  feeling  of  such  a  gift,  from  such  a 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  209 

Giver,  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  within  us 
would  be  broken  up,  and  we  should  require  no  ex- 
hortation to  pour  out  our  whole  souls  in  praise  and 
joy.  That  the  Most  High  should  condescend  to  the 
lowest,  a  Holy  God  to  his  sinful  creatures,  that 
heaven  should  bow  to  earth,  dark,  guilty  earth,  this 
is  mercy,  this  is  love.  "  For  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlast- 
ing life."  "  Thanks  be  unto  God  for  his  unspeaka- 
ble gift." 

The  illustrious  messenger  commissioned  for  our 
salvation  may  be  viewed  in  three  relations  and  as- 
pects to  us,  as  the  Christ  of  Prophecy,  the  Christ  of 
History,  and  the  Christ  of  Experience.  This  threefold 
survey  will  help  us  in  grouping  our  meditations  and 
aiding  our  memories.  Each  point,  too,  will  furnish 
independent  matter  for  faith  and  for  thankfulness. 

I.  The  Christ  of  Prophecy,  This  world,  as  consti- 
tuting the  initiatory  state  of  our  being,  relates  more 
directly  to  the  body.  It  gives  food  to  our  hunger, 
clothing  and  shelter  to  our  nakedness,  and  tasks  for 
our  muscles.  Hence  it  is  liable  to  tyrannize  over 
that  part  of  us  which  is  not  fed  by  any  bread,  clothed 
with  any  garments,  or  tasked  by  any  labors,  limited 
to  t'me  and  sense.  To  bring,  then,  the  spiritual 
world  into  action  upon  our  spiritual  nature,  as  this 
world  is  brought  into  action  upon  our  bodily  nature, 
seems  to  be  the  problem  proposed  in  all  religions. 
To  reveal  the  Creator  to  his  creatures ;  to  introduce 

18* 


210  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

God  into  this  state  of  existence,  and  make  men  feel 
nigh  to  Him  ;  to  render  the  children  of  time  sensible 
of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  —  has  been  the 
mission  of  every  true  prophet  and  teacher.  Men  all 
over  the  earth  have  yearned  after  God.  The  pil- 
grims have  travelled  far,  and  sank  down  on  the  desert 
sands,  in  search  of  their  Father.  The  poets  have 
borne  this  burden  on  their  harmonious  numbers. 
Hermits  have  dwelt  in  caves,  that,  where  the  noise 
of  the  world  was  shut  out,  they  might  hear  the  still, 
small  voice.  Sacrifices  have  been  as  universal  as 
the  fire  that  consumed  them.  Humanity  can  adopt 
with  historical  truth  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  "  My 
heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the  living  God."  And 
Christ,  as  the  counterpart  to  this  wide-spread  and 
deep-seated  need,  may  be  said  to  be  the  object  of  a 
species  of  blind  prediction  by  all  the  sages  of  the 
heathen  world,  as  he  was  of  a  clear  prophecy  by  the 
Jewish  seers. 

Man,  though  specially  a  creature  of  reason,  has, 
nevertheless,  his  instincts.  He  is  not  wholly  made 
up  of  cool  calculation  and  deliberate  judgment. 
A  vast  and  varied  nature  flames  within  his  clay. 
He  is  of  "  every  creature's  best."  The  animals 
share  with  him  of  their  passions  and  appetites,  the 
cherubim  have  contributed  their  knowledge,  and 
he  has  caught  from  the  seraphim  a  spark  of  their 
love.  As  the  bird,  the  fish,  the  beast,  under  the  im- 
pulse and  unerring  guidance  of  their  respective  in- 
stincts, seek  after  their  appropriate   and  congenial 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  211 

good,  SO  do  certain  instinctive  faculties  in  man  reach 
upward  after  what  the  Roman  orator  called  "  some- 
thing immense  and  infinite."  His  trust  and  hope  fly 
abroad  out  of  this  little  cage  of  the  body,  and  rise 
up  singing  even  to  heaven's  gate.  His  love  yearns 
and  stretches  itself  after  something  lovelier  and 
dearer  than  it  has  ever  yet  experienced  or  possessed. 
Pile  mountains  of  superstition  upoi^  this  human  na- 
ture, and,  like  the  giant,  it  will  heave  the  whole 
mass,  and  throw  up  smoke  and  ashes,  if  no  clear 
fire,  from  the  deep  centre  of  the  volcano.  For  take 
the  lapse  of  ages,  take  the  myriads  of  the  race,  and 
we  see  certain  general  and  uniform  movements 
towards  a  higher  religion,  as  much  as  towards  a 
higher  civilization.  Here  it  may  be  arrested,  and 
there  it  may  be  beaten  back ;  but  the  reactions  are 
but  side-eddies  in  the  stream,  the  general  current  is 
onward.  There  is  enough  to  be  seen  even  in  the 
perverted  religions  of  history,  to  convince  us  that 
Christ  was,  in  the  sacred  language  of  the  Bible,  "  the 
desire  of  all  nations." 

His  coming  was  in  accordance  with  the  plan  of 
God  from  the  first;  not  an  artifice  to  supply  an  un- 
expected failure,  not  an  outward  patch  of  new  cloth 
upon  an  old  garment,  but  as  a  part  of  its  intrinsic 
texture,  of  its  warp  and  its  woof,  did  the  mission  of 
Jesus  crown  and  complete  the  Divine  counsels  for 
the  welfare  of  man.  Thus  there  were  "  prepara- 
tions," not  only  among  the  Jews,  but  in  general  his- 
tory, for  the  birth  of  Christ.     It  took  place  at  such  a 


m  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

period,  in  such  a  place,  and  nnder  snch  circum- 
staaees,  as  were  best  adapted,  not  simply  for  the 
people  of  J  odea,  bat  for  all  kindreds,  tongues,  and 
■mtkitis.  The  human  species  had  been  allowed  time 
to  run  through  a  Tarieiy  of  exjjeriments  in  govern- 
ment, social  life,  and  religion,  fitted  to  produce  hu- 
mility and  distrust  of  their  own  unaided  ability  to 
'watk  out  the  life-problem. 

In  the  language  of  Leiaod,  «  The  Christian  Reve- 
lation was  made  to  the  world  at  a  time  when  it  was 
most  wanted,  when  the  darkness  and  connption  of 

mankind  were  arrived  at  the  height. If  it  had 

been  published  much  sooner,  and  before  there  had 
been  a  full  trial  made  of  what  was  to  be  expected 
from  human  wisdom  and  philosophy,  the  great  need 
men  stood  in  of  such  an  extraordinary  Divine  dis- 
pensation would  not  have  been  so  apparent  The 
mighty  natioos  of  the  old  world  had  risen,  de- 
cfiaedy  and  fdlen.  Rome  alone  stood,  but  the  film 
of  age  and  decay  already  began  to  dim  her  eagle 
eye.  Jast  at  the  era  when  her  universal  dominion 
had  inlled  for  the  instant  the  turbulence  of  mankind, 
and  when  a  comparatively  safe  conduct  woidd  be 
giren  to  the  promulgators  of  the  new  faith,  tmder 
Boman  law  and  order,  the  moral  King  of  the  race 
b^an  his  reign.     In  Milton's  noble  words.  — 


TW  iOe  flpor  aid  iUdi  m«  h^  19 


THE    THKEEFOLD    CHStST.  213 

UKtained  with  Ikosdk  blood ; 

The  traapct  ^oke  Boc  to  the  anned  dtnse^ 

Aad  kiap  Mt  na  with  awid  cje, 

As  if  tihej  nieij  kwv  Acir  Sorere^B  liOfd  «M  W. 

Bm  peMefid  WW  tfce  aieK 

WkcflCM  Ae  FkiMe  flf  1%^* 

Hit  na  of  pMce  noK  the  esA  begw." 


He  came  as  ''a  light  to  ligfaten  the  GentOes,"  no 
less  than  as  « the  glory  of  his  people  laad."  And 
when  shepherds  of  the  djoaen  mtkm  eam^  to  InH 
his  birth,  and  angeb  from  faearen  « bowed  tlidr 
bright  wings  to  a  woiid  sach  as  this,"  and  rhairtrd, 
<«  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest!''  it  was  but  a  fit  ac- 
companiment to  tbe  odier  bonois  tint  wise  men 
from  the  East,  the  Magians,  the  lepiesmtatives  of 
the  heathen  world,  shook!  come  to  honor  hiin  wilk 
their  homage,  and  with  their  rich  gifts  of  gold, 
frankincense,  and  mirrrfa,  whose  need  was  felt  in 
every  land,  and  the  desire  and  hope  of  whom  nu^kt 
be  said  to  smoolder  daiUy  and  deeptj  in  eierf  ho- 
man  bosom. 

But  the  Christ  who  was  blindly  felt  after  by  sage 
and  seer,  if  haply  they  might  find  him,  was  the 
Christ  of  an  assmed  piv^ibe^  in  Jodea.  Abraham 
had  seen  his  day,  and  was  ^ad.  Bven  ^^nK^r^  to 
Adam  and  Noah  the  {Homise  had  gone  finth.  Th^ 
Mosaic  institutions  were  all  pvoepective^  not  finaL 
Their  author  foresaw  tbe  piophet  which  the  Ijoid 
God  would  send.  I  need  n<it  cite  texts  which  are 
familiar  to  you.  Ton  know  the  tencv  of  Isaiah  and 
Daniel  and  the  min<«  propheta.     Some 


214  THE  THREEFOLD  CHRIST. 

may  have  been  misrepresented  and  strained  to  make 
out  an  argument,  but  that  Jesus  was  the  object  of 
prophetic  faith  and  hope,  I  suppose  can  no  more  be 
denied,  than  that  God  was  the  object  of  worship. 
Every  mother  in  the  line  of  David  coveted  the  honor 
of  being  the  favored  parent  of  so  distinguished  an 
offspring.  The  Jews  were  not,  it  is  true,  prepared  to 
accept  him  in  his  twofold  capacity  of  Son  of  God  as 
well  as  Son  of  Man ;  they  wanted  him  wholly  as 
the  Son  of  Man,  as  an  earthly  king.  But  the  indis- 
tinct yearnings  of  humanity  after  a  more  open  vision 
of  God  and  a  clearer  revelation  of  human  duty 
rose  among  the  children  of  Israel  to*a  prophetic  cer- 
tainty. 

And  if  we  ask  for  final  causes,  if  we  demand  the 
uses  of  such  yearnings  and  of  such  a  certainty,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  dawn  must  come  before  sun- 
rise. By  the  power  of  that  "  hope  which  springs 
eternal  in  the  breast,"  the  nations  were  led  onward. 
God  thus  left  not  himself  without  witness  in  any  na- 
tion. The  anticipation  of  "  the  better  time  coming  " 
shone  down  the  long  line  of  past  generations,  and 
cheered  the  hearts  and  strengthened  the  hands  of 
those  who  toiled  and  taught,  who  suffered  and  died, 
for  human  liberty  and  happiness.  In  the  lapse  of 
four  thousand  years  from  the  creation  to  the  advent 
of  the  Saviour,  many  lessons  had  been  learned  that 
would  not  be  forgotten,  some  of  the  ideas  necessary 
to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord  had  gained  a  footing, 
and  the  fulness  of  the  time  had  come  when  "  the 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  215 

Sun  of  Righteousness  should  arise  with  healing  in 
his  wings." 

II.  The  way  has  now  been  prepared  for  the  next 
step  of  our  inquiry,  as  it  respects  the  Chrut  of  His- 
tory. We  have  seen  the  general  want,  and  the  spe- 
cial prediction.  How  was  that  want  met,  and  how 
was  that  prediction  fulfilled?  The  heavenly  mes- 
senger came.  How  did  he  live,  teach,  die  ?  Did  the 
Christ  of  History  make  good  the  Christ  of  Prophecy  ? 
If  not  according  to  fallible  human  judgment,  and 
worldly,  warlike  views  of  Jewish  doctors  and  law- 
yers, did  his  ministry  bear  the  broad  and  unmistaka- 
ble stamp  of  a  divine  authority,  character,  and  spirit, 
such  as  it  became  a  merciful  and  righteous  Father 
to  appoint  and  sanction,  and  such  as  it  was  fitting 
and  beneficial  that  his  alienated  and  erring  creatures 
should  receive  ? 

And  here  we  may  pause  for  a  moment  to  consider 
the  fearful  suspense  with  which  the  spectators  of  the 
youth  and  opening  manhood  of  Jesus  must  have 
surveyed  his  career.  The  Protestant  Church  makes 
too  little  of  the  childhood  of  the  Saviour,  the  holy 
family,  the  period  of  his  youth,  and  the  influences 
and  preparations  that  were  around  him  who  was  to 
be  the  Teacher  of  the  world.  The  question  might  be 
with  those  higher  spirits,  who  knew  that  our  Lord 
was  a  free  agent.  Would  he  always  be  true  to  him- 
self and  to  God  ?  Would  the  Son  of  God  keep 
from  sinking  into  the  mere  Son  of  Man  ?  Would 
the  second  Adam  resist  temptation  more  successfully 


216  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

than  did  the  first  Adam  ?  Would  he  ever  keep  the 
path  of  rectitude  and  purity,  and  have  occasion  to 
sorrow  only  for  the  sins  of  others,  never  for  his  own  ? 
Would  he  on  all  occasions,  in  the  desert  and  in  the 
garden,  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Pilate,  and  on 
the  cross  of  Calvary,  "  though  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  yet  be  without  sin  "  ?  What  would 
be  his  words,  what  would  be  his  deeds  ?  There 
were  the  infinite  possibilities  of  virtue  before  him, 
but  would  he  of  all  who  had  ever  trod  the  earth 
keep  the  golden  mean,  shun  the  too  little  and  the  too 
much,  and,  amid  the  endless  varieties  of  speech  and 
action,  act  and  live,  teach  and  suffer  and  die,  and 
still  remain  without  spot  or  blemish,  and  be  able  to 
make  the  unanswerable  appeal  to  his  enemies, — 
"  Which  of  you  convinceth  me  of  sin  ?  " 

In  this  pause  of  the  spiritual  world  to  behold  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  God  on  earth,  may  we  not  well 
suppose  that  they  who  sang  of  this  birth  would 
still  bow  from  their  seats  of  blessedness  to  witness 
his  work  ?  So  runs  the  record,  that  when  the  Devil 
left  him  in  the  wilderness,  "  angels  came  and  minis- 
tered unto  him  "  ;  and  that  when  the  dark  shadows 
of  Gethsemane  gathered  over  his  head,  and  "  being 
in  an  agony,  his  sweat  was  as  it  were  great  drops  of 
blood  falling  down  to  the  ground,"  then  and  there 
"  appeared  an  angel  unto  him  from  heaven,  strength- 
ening him."  Moses,  the  founder,  and  Elijah,  the 
restorer,  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  and  the  re- 
ligion of  one  God,  appeared  with  him  in  the  moun- 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST,  217 

tain-top,  when  he  was  transfigured  before  the  disci- 
ples, and  the  subject  of  their  august  conversation  is 
stated  to  have  been  his  decease  soon  to  be  accom- 
plished at  Jerusalem.  How  far  or  how  near  may  be 
the  confines  of  that  mysterious  dwelling-place  of  the 
spirit-world,  is  not  for  us  to  say.  Enough  to  know 
that  a  mighty  cloud  of  witnesses  encompassed  Him 
who  came  to  save  the  world. 

And  when  we  turn  from  that  anxiety  how  Christ 
would  live,  to  how  Christ  did  live,  how  glorious  the 
reality  beyond  human  power  or  expectation !  We 
ejaculate  with  the  Roman  centurion,  "  Truly  this 
was  a  righteous  man;  truly  this  was  the  Son  of 
God."  We  asseverate  with  Simon  Peter,  "  We  be- 
lieve and  are  sure  that  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God." 

Read  the  Gospels.  There  you  see  what  the  Christ 
of  History  was.  There  you  follow  his  benevolent 
journeys  from  city  to  city,  and  from  province  to  prov- 
ince. "  He  went  about  doing  good."  There  you 
witness  what  wonderful  works  he  did,  and  what  sub- 
lime prophecies  he  uttered.  It  is  true,  there  is  no 
set  portrait  drawn  of  him  by  his  disciples.  No  one 
was  appointed  to  pronounce  a  funeral  oration  at  his 
tomb.  But  undescribed,  his  character  is  best  de- 
scribed. We  sometimes  obtain  a  truer  insight  into 
it  by  a  slight  incident,  by  some  word  he  drops,  than 
we  should  by  pages  of  rhetorical  effort.  Here  were 
no  less  than  eight  different  writers  speaking  of  Jesus, 
and  his  work,  and  his  life, —  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke, 

19 


218  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

John,  Paul,  James,  Peter,  and  Jude,  —  and  yet, 
though  artless  and  uncultivated  men  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, how  harmonious  and  identical  is  the  impression 
they  leave  on  our  minds  of  the  character  of  their 
Master  !  They  never  cross  or  contradict  one  another 
as  to  his  spiritual  features.  It  is  the  same  heavenly 
face  that  beams  upon  us  from  the  page  of  the  loving 
John,  the  practical  James,  and  the  energetic  Paul, 
The  word  Jesus  suggests  the  same  idea  of  character 
wherever  it  occurs,  one  and  indivisible. 

What  combined  simplicity  and  strength  and 
sweetness  must  have  been  in  a  life  that  could  make 
but  one  impression,  and  which,  though  placed  be- 
fore us  often  in  fragments  and  independent  actions, 
conveys  a  uniform  idea !  The  infidel  has  often 
borne  witness  to  its  power,  and  whatever  he  may 
have  said  of  the  origin,  authenticity,  and  genuine- 
ness of  the  Gospels,  he  has  seldom  brought  any 
"  railing  accusation "  against  its  spotless  subject. 
He  has  generally  respected  Christ,  however  much  he 
may  have  said  against  Christianity. 

The  different  sects  of  Christians,  though  holding 
to  diverse  doctrines,  have  had  little  controversy  as  to 
the  life  of  Jesus,  and  the  spirit  of  his  moral  teach- 
ings. However  they  may  have  theorized  about  his 
nature,  they  could  not  but  agree  in  one  view  of  the 
dignity,  beauty,  and  matchless  perfection  of  his 
character.  His  love  was  too  disinterested  and  trans- 
parent, his  mercy  too  ample,  his  heavenly-minded- 
ness  too  manifest,  even  for  the  narrowest  to  mis- 


THE     THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  219 

understand,  or  for  the  nnost  contentious  to  dispute. 
Holy  and  beautiful  life  of  the  Son  of  God  I  The 
better  we  know  it,  the  more  we  love  and  revere  it. 
As  long  as  we  look  upon  its  divine  lineaments,  we 
can  never  wholly  fail  in  loving  excellence,  and  living 
and  hoping  for  heaven. 

III.  In  the  third  and  last  place,  we  were  to  view 
Christ  as  he  stands  related  to  hunrian  experience,  — 
what  has  been  called  sometimes,  rather  mystically, 
the  Christ  of  Consciousness.  This  is  the  practical  part 
of  our  subject.  For  little  would  it  profit  us  to  know 
that  Jesus  was  predicted,  or  that  he  came  and  fulfilled 
his  mission,  if  we  have  no  personal  interest  in  the 
message  he  bore,  and  the  life  he  lived ;  if  we  have 
not  experienced  and  actualized  to  some  extent  the 
truth  for  the  mind,  and  the  love  for  the  heart,  which 
he  brought  us  from  his  Father  and  our  Father.  He 
was  to  a  great  degree  himself  the  Revelation.  Christ 
is  Christianity.  If  we  have  realized  what  his  relig- 
ion is,  we  have  so  far  realized  what  he  is. 

To  show  you  that  this  view  is  not  presented  with- 
out authority,  let  us  recount  some  of  the  more  em- 
phatic declarations  of  the  New  Testament.  We 
shall  thus  see  that  the  idea  of  a  species  of  reproduc- 
tion in  ourselves  of  Christ,  is  no  mysticism,  but  a 
plain  Scripture  doctrine.  And  we  shall  further  see 
how  worthless  to  us  becomes  the  Christ  of  Prophecy, 
or  the  Christ  of  History,  except  he  becomes  also  to 
us  the  Christ  of  Experience,  of  inward  possession  and 

joy- 


220  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

"  Yet  a  little  while,"  said  Jesus  to  his  disciples, 
"  and  the  world  seeth  me  no  more,  but  ye  see  me  ; 
because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also.  At  that  day  ye 
shall  know  that  I  am  in  my  Father,  and  you  in  me, 
and  I  in  you."  Again,  "  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will 
keep  my  words ;  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and 
we  will  come  and  make  our  abode  with  him."  He 
also  prays  to  God  that  his  disciples  may  "  be  one 
even  as  we  are  one  ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  rne,  that 
they  may  be  perfect  in  one."  In  other  connections 
he  speaks  of  the  same  oneness  with  his  followers, 
and  his  dwelling  in  them. 

The  Apostles  advance  in  several  passages  the 
same  idea.  "  My  little  children,"  said  Paul  to  the 
Galatians,  "  of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again  until 
Christ  be  formed  in  you."  To  the  Corinthians  he 
wrote :  "  Always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the  dying 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  might 
be  made  manifest  in  our  body.  For  we  which  live 
are  always  delivered  unto  death  for  Jesus's  sake,  that 
the  life  also  of  Jesus  might  be  made  manifest  in  our 
mortal  flesh."  He  reiterates  the  same  doctrine  to 
the  Ephesians :  "  That  Christ  m^ay  dwell  in  your 
hearts  by  faith ;  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded 
in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  the  saints 
what  is  the  breadth  and  length,  and  depth  and  height, 
and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowl- 
edge, that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of 
God."  John  also  says :  "  And  he  that  keepeth  his 
commandment  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in  him  ;  and 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  221 

hereby  we  know  that  he  abideth  in  us,  by  the  spirit 
which  he  hath  given  us." 

By  all  which  it  seems  clearly  to  be  meant,  that 
there  is  an  indwelling  Christ  in  every  true  believer 
and  disciple  ;  and  that  to  cherish  and  to  bring  out  in 
ourselves  the  Christ,  should  be  our  end  and  aim. 
For  what  was  the  Christ,  but  the  Divine,  the  True, 
and  the  Good,  embodied,  incarnated  in  a  perfect  liv- 
ing being  ;  a  personification  of  heaven  on  earth  ;  the 
kingdom  of  God  fully  come  in  one  point ;  the  way 
shown  in  which  God  would  live  in  the  flesh,  were 
God  man  ?  And  towards  what  do  all  the  teachings, 
ordinances,  and  promises  of  the  Gospel  preponderate, 
but  to  renew  —  in  humbler  guise  and  lowlier  types, 
it  is  true,  but  still  to  renew —  the  very  same  Divine, 
True,  and  Good  which  dwelt  in  Jesus,  and  which 
primarily  dwelt  in  God ;  to  have  the  same  mind  in 
us  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus ;  to  see  from  his 
point  of  view  that  virtue  is  the  one  transcendent  in- 
terest;  to  be  willing,  like  him,  to  sacrifice  everything 
for  it,  though  it  were  life  itself;  to  act  from  like  mo- 
tives ;  to  breathe  a  kindred  spirit ;  to  do  good,  as  he 
did,  to  all ;  and  to  understand  that  this  species  of 
life,  so  far  from  being  anything  fanatical,  ultra,  ab- 
surd, impracticable,  is  the  only  rational,  consistent, 
true,  and  practical  method  by  which  one  can  avoid 
wrecking  both  his  temporal  and  eternal  welfare? 
That  in  very  truth,  without  living  such  a  life,  and 
unfolding  the  latent  features  of  the  portrait  of  Christ 
which  are  imbedded  invisibly  in  every  human  soul, 
19  • 


222  THE  THREEFOLD  CHRIST. 

we  do  not  live  really  as  with  the  life  of  angels  and 
of  God,  but  we  merely  exist  as  with  the  life  of  ani- 
mals, —  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping,  —  or  vegetate 
as  with  the  life  of  the  yet  lower,  inanimate  creation. 
Is  not  this  intelligible  ?  and  is  it  not  all-important  ? 

If  there  is  anything  obscure  in  this  view  to  any 
mind,  or,  if  not  obscure,  still  unimpressive,  it  will  be 
more  plain  if  we  take  one  rule  for  our  guide.  It  is 
this,  that  we  can  only  know  another  so  far  as  we 
have  in  us  what  the  other  possesses;  we  can  un- 
derstand love  only  so  far  as  w^e  have  loved ;  anger, 
so  far  as  we  have  been  angry ;  and  so  on  through 
the  catalogue  of  things  good  and  things  evil.  In  a 
word,  we  can  know  only  so  much  as  we  are  and  as 
we  do.  All  we  really  comprehend  of  humanity  is 
by  the  development  in  ourselves  of  the  human  ;  of 
God  and  of  Christ,  by  having  the  Godlike  and  the 
Christlike  made  real  in  us.  "  He  that  doeth  the  will 
of  God  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 

The  Christ  of  Prophecy  was  needful  in  his  place, 
as  the  initiation  of  the  comprehensive  plan  of  the 
Almighty  for  his  creatures'  deliverance  and  life.  The 
hope  of  the  coming  of  some  great  being  to  aid  man 
in  his  trials  had  its  twilight  even  in  the  heathen 
mind.  The  day  broke  long  before  the  sun  rose 
above  the  horizon,  while  the  patriarchs  and  prophets 
ascended  the  mount  of  God,  and  looked  abroad  over 
the  more  than  earthly  Canaan.  But  the  benefits  of 
the  Christ  of  Prophecy  to  us  are  simply  that  they 
confirm  our  faith,  and  raise  in  us  a  more  exalted  idea 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  223 

of  the  excellence  of  Him  who  was  thus  ordained 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  as  much  a  part  of 
the  plan  of  the  Creator  as  the  ocean,  the  earth,  or 
the  sun. 

The  Christ  of  History,  too,  has  passed  away.  He 
has  ascended  up  on  high,  leading  captivity  captive, 
and  is  seated  on  the  right  hand  of  the  power  of  God. 
All  that  now  visibly  remains  to  us  of  him  is  in  cer- 
tain parchments  and  paper  leaves,  recording  his  deeds 
and  words,  in  certain  histories  of  his  life,  certain 
laws,  institutions,  symbols.  The  earth  will  not  again 
be  pressed  by  his  foot,  no  lilies  will  bloom  before  his 
spiritual  eye,  no  birds  again  draw  forth  the  superla- 
tive lesson  of  trust  in  Providence.  Once  for  all  he 
has  lived,  once  for  all  he  has  died.  His  presence 
with  his  followers  till  the  end  of  the  world  is  a  spirit- 
ual presence.  His  coming  is  his  kingdom,  not  of  this 
world,  the  reign  of  righteousness.  His  sceptre  will 
ever  remain  his  cross. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  we  see  how  the  Christ  of 
Experience  is  one  with  the  Christ  of  History,  as  the 
Christ  of  History  is  one  with  the  Christ  of  Prophecy. 
The  three  are  one  and  the  self-same  being,  only 
viewed  under  different  relations.  As  the  same  Infi- 
nite Creator  is  contemplated  from  one  position,  and 
called  the  God  of  Nature ;  from  another,  and  called 
the  God  of  Providence ;  and  from  still  another,  and 
called  the  God  of  Grace.  We  thus  gain  more  defi- 
nite and  impressive  views  both  of  Jesus  and  of  our 
Heavenly  Father. 


224  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  of  late  years  to  do  in- 
justice to  the  Christ  of  History  and  the  Christ  of 
Prophecy,  and  to  insist  too  boldly  and  exclusively  on 
the  Christ  of  Experience  or  consciousness.  But  each 
and  all  are  good  in  their  place.  "We  cannot  subtract 
from  or  add  to  the  plan  of  God.  We  cannot  do 
without  either.  Each  represents  a  great  idea.  Each 
commands  an  extensive  section  of  the  Divine  scheme. 
Each  appeals  to  central  principles  and  affections  in 
man.  Prophecy  stands  related  to  hope,  history  to 
memory,  and  experience  to  affections  and  love  and 
the  realities  of  life.  Into  whatever  pages  of  Heav- 
en's record  we  look,  we  see  that  the  finger  of  mercy 
has  been  there  before  us,  and  traced  every  line. 

Especially  is  there  a  vital  connection  between  the 
Christ  of  History  and  the  Christ  of  Experience.  All 
we  have  of  the  latter  we  must  form  on  the  model  of, 
and  import  from,  the  former.  The  very  standards  of 
ancient  virtue  were  false.  They  mixed  the  image  to 
be  worshipped  with  clay  as  well  as  gold.  The 
Christ  of  the  New  Testament  shows  that  the  Jews 
erred  widely  of  the  mark  when  they  made  the  Christ 
of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Messiah,  the  Anointed 
One  of  God,  a  man  of  blood,  a  man  after  the  old 
standard  and  pattern  of  heroism.  The  heroes  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  also,  can  be  no  heroes  of  the 
Christian  kingdom,  or  but  inferior  ones,  because  self, 
external  fame,  passion,  cruelty,  and  lust  so  often 
mingled  strange  fire  even  with  their  most  costly  sac- 
rifices.   Jesus  created  a  new  order  of  character,  so  to 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  225 

speak,  when  he  came.  He  reversed  the  standards  of 
men  with  the  standard  of  God.  He  was  verily  the 
first-born  of  a  new  creation.  And  the  authentic  and 
genuine  record,  where  his  acts  and  words  stand  re- 
corded, must  ever  act  powerfully  on  men  to  bring  out 
in  more  radiant  portraiture  the  spiritual  elements 
that  lie,  like  the  painter's  colors,  without  distinction  or 
perspective,  mixed  and  fused  in  separate  masses,  un- 
relieved and  unshaded,  but  which  only  need  his  deli- 
cate touch  and  his  more  delicate  taste  to  make  the 
very  canvas  breathe  before  us,  and  enchant  the  world. 
Within  us,  and  lying  all  around  us  in  the  lowliest 
walks  of  life,  there  are  the  oils  and  the  oxides,  the 
acids  and  the  alkalies,  (to  continue  the  figure,)  which 
need  to  be  but  properly  prepared  and  laid  on  to  cre- 
ate a  picture  lifelike  and  beautiful,  which  men  be- 
holding shall  say,  "  Lo,  the  image  of  Christ,  full  of 
his  grace  and  truth ! "  This  moral  painting  is  our 
work  in  the  present  state,  and  may  we  ever  follow  it 
with  the  high  appreciation  of  the  ancient  artist,  who, 
when  complained  of  for  the  slowness  of  his  execu- 
tion as  compared  with  that  of  some  others,  ex- 
claimed, "  But  I  paint  for  immortality  !  " 

The  Christ  in  us,  the  Christ  of  Experience  and 
Consciousness,  in  fact,  becomes  chiefly  possible  and 
real  to  us  because  it  is  preceded  by  the  Christ  of  His- 
tory. The  best  men  of  the  old  world  are  far  inferior 
to  the  best  men  of  the  modern  world.  They  may 
have  had  some  splendid  virtues,  but  they  were  too 
often  likewise  marred  with  splendid  sins.     A  Chris- 


226  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

tian  is  required  to  be  "  perfect  and  entire,  wanting 
nothing."  Nor  is  it  only  here  and  there  a  fully  be- 
lieving and  confirmed  disciple  that  Jesus  acts  upon 
for  a  good  end.  The  great  mass  of  men  in  Christian 
countries  are  better  because  he  has  breathed  the  air 
and  trod  the  soil  of  earth.  Few  but  what  have 
caught  something  from  him.  His  laws  have  been 
diluted  into  Mahometanism  ;  his  promises  have  been 
wafted  far  and  wide  into  heathen  climes.  The  con- 
science of  the  world  is  sharper,  that  Jesus  lived  the 
absolute  law  of  rectitude ;  the  heart  of  the  world  is 
tenderer,  that  he  cried  from  the  cross  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  his  enemies.  We  will  not  chide  those  who 
do  wonders  in  his  name,  even  if  they  do  not  follow 
with  us ;  for  he  is  to  be  the  Christ  of  humanity,  and 
not  the  Christ  of  a  sect,  or  nation,  or  age.  The  liv- 
ing of  Christ  dates  an  era  spiritually  as  significant 
as  the  living  of  Adam  did  materially  and  physiolog- 
ically. Against  the  little  faith  of  mankind,  their 
doubts  and  sneers,  there  is  always,  now  and  hence- 
forth, this  prevailing  answer  and  reproof,  —  Jesus 
lived,  Jesus  lived.  In  no  protected  by-place,  where 
his  virtue  was  shielded ;  in  no  hermit's  cave,  where 
he  had  but  himself  to  subdue ;  in  no  fairy  or  ficti- 
tious conditions ;  but  down  in  this  hard,  work-day 
world,  coping  with  all  kinds  of  men,  mixing  with»the 
busy,  sinning  multitude,  bound  by  earth's  ties,  wear- 
ing its  garments  of  flesh,  eating  his  bread  with  the 
sweat  of  his  brow,  and  toiling  for  the  bread  of  life  for 
others  with  the  sweat  of  blood,  Jesus  lived  and  Jesus 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  227 

died.  Those  mighty  facts  are  rooted  in  history,  and 
they  can  now  never  die  out  of  the  memory  of  man. 
The  sceptic  may  sometimes  have  hawked  at  and 
scorned  them,  as  he  has,  for  example,  pronounced  the 
matchless  poem  of  the  Iliad  the  work  of  many  hands, 
and  not  of  one  Homer,  or  the  writings  of  Virgil  and 
Tacitus  the  achievements  of  the  monks  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  buried  in  their  cobweb  cells ;  but  until  he  can 
call  Greece  a  myth  and  Rome  a  simulacrum^  or  image, 
he  must  confess  that  here  is  a  greater  than  Greece  or 
Rome,  the  light  of  the  world,  the  sovereign  spirit  of 
the  ages,  in  which  humanity  at  last  finds  its  head 
and  its  union  with  the  Divinity.  Jesus  lived ;  there- 
fore his  disciples  live  also.  His  most  gracious  prom- 
ise has  been  made  good.  He  is  the  cause,  they  are 
the  effect. 

"  Once  they  were  mourners  here  below, 

And  wet  their  couch  with  tears  ; 

They  wrestled  hard,  as  we  do  now. 

With  sins  and  doubts  and  fears. 

"  I  ask  them  whence  their  victory  came ; 
They,  with  united  breath. 
Ascribe  their  conquest  to  the  Lamb, 
Their  triumph  to  his  death. 

"  Our  glorious  Leader  claims  our  praise, 
For  his  own  pattern  given, 
While  the  long  cloud  of  witnesses 
Shows  the  same  path  to  heaven." 

The  vital  point,  therefore,  in  conclusion,  on  which 
both  the  Christ  of  Prophecy  and  the  Christ  of  His- 


228  THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST. 

tory  terminate,  is  the  Christ  of  Experience,  Christ 
formed  within,  the  heart  moulded  after  that  divine 
type,  and  the  life  led  by  that  perfect  law  of  love. 
Only  so  far  as  we  have  the  spirit  of  Christ  can  we 
be  his.  Only  so  far  as  we  appropriate  in  sympa- 
thetic imitation  the  beauties,  glories,  and  sanctities 
that  charm  us  in  the  Son  of  God,  are  we  entitled  to 
be  called  Christians.  This  test  sifts  and  simplifies 
sects,  this  solves  controversies,  this  shows  us  the 
mystery  of  godliness  so  plain  that  he  may  run  who 
readeth  it. 

But  of  what  avail  is  bread,  if  we  do  not  eat  of 
it?  or  water,  if  we  do  not  quench  our  thirst?  or 
the  sun,  if  we  do  not  walk  in  his  beams  ?  And  in 
reference  to  this,  it  has  been  no  less  strikingly  than 
beautifully  said  :  "  "We  say  the  sun  rises,  but  it  does 
not  rise ;  it  is  only  the  earth  rolling  us  upward  where 
we  can  behold  his  light.  So,  when  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness rises  upon  us,  the  change  is  in  ourselves, 
not  in  him."  * 

We  cannot  be  Christs,  but  we  can  be  Christians, 
like  Christ.  He  had  a  peculiar  office,  he  did  won- 
derful works,  and  he  escaped  the  taint  that  haunts 
all  the  children  of  men,  the  plague-spot  of  sin.  But 
he  is  not  the  less  our  example,  none  the  less  our  in- 
spiration. The  Holy  Spirit  takes  of  his  and  gives  it 
to  us.  We  cannot  say  all  he  said,  but  we  can  say 
all  we  do  say  in  his  spirit.  We  cannot  do  all  he 
did,  but  we  can  do  all  we  do  do  in  his  love. 

*  W.  0.  B.  Peabody. 


THE    THREEFOLD    CHRIST.  229 

To  take  a  familiar  illustration.  The  private  citi- 
zen cannot  do  or  be  like  Washington.  He  cannot 
command  armies,  he  cannot  make  good  a  revolution, 
he  cannot  sit  in  the  chair  of  state.  But  the  example 
of  that  noblest  of  mere  men  is  none  the  less  to  be 
recommended  as  a  model.  For  the  severe  truth,  the 
lofty  principle,  the  steady  rectitude,  the  pure  flame  of 
patriotism  that  never  l)urned  low,  never  burned  gross, 
in  the  heart  of  Washington,  can  be  copied,  lived,  and 
loved  in  every-day  life  by  the  humblest  of  his  coun- 
trymen. 

But  Jesus  does  more  than  lead  us  to  follow  him  ; 
he  is  the  Mediator  to  lead  us  up  higher,  highest,  to 
the  Supreme  and  Adorable  Father,  that  we  may 
through  him  be  "  follqwcrs  of  God  as  dear  children  "  ; 
that,  having  escaped  the  lusts  of  the  world,  we  may 
become  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature,  of  the  Divine 
holiness.  As  another  of  the  years  of  nature,  and, 
in  coincidence  almost  with  it,  another  of  the  years  of 
grace,  passes  away,  and  new  ones  come,  full-handed 
with  blessings,  and  bearing  the  benediction  of  the 
Infinite  Parent,  may  we  all  begin  the  new  year  anew, 
live  in  newness  of  life,  and  aspire  after  that  better  life 
led  by  the  Son  of  God  on  earth,  and  that  brighter 
heaven  to  which  he  has  ascended. 


DISCOURSE    XIII 


THE  FULNESS  OE  CHRIST. 

FOR   IT    PLEASED    THE    FATHER    THAT    IN   HIM    SHOULD     ALL    FITL- 

NESS  DWELL.  —  Colossians  i.  19. 

IN  WHOM  ARE  HID  ALL  THE  TREASURES  OP  WISDOM  AND  KNOWL- 
EDGE.—  ii.  3. 

FOR  IN  HIM  DWELLETH  ALL  THE  FULNESS  OF  THE  GODHEAD 
BODILY.  —  ii.  9. 

All  great  things  are  slowly  perceived  and  felt. 
Thousands  of  years  must  pass  before  the  conception 
of  Cosmos,  a  universal  order  and  beneficent  law, 
could  be  produced,  and  all  the  myriad  phenomena  of 
nature  be  grouped  under  broad  and  harmonious  prin- 
ciples. The  grand  in  natural  scenery  dawns  slowly 
on  the  mind.  The  Alps,  Niagara,  the  ocean,  are  ap- 
preciated only  after  long  culture.  Ages  must  pass 
before  the  idea  and  worship  of  one  God  could  be 
established,  and  ages  more  before  the  fatherly  char- 
acter of  this  Great  Being  could  be  understood  and 
felt.  But  few  great  men  and  geniuses  are  compre- 
hended in  their  day.  Socrates  is  better  known  now 
than  he  was  in  old  Athens.     Plato,  Aristotle,  Bacon, 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST.  231 

Milton,  Shakespeare,  Washington,  Luther,  are  more 
reverenced  now,  as  their  greatness  looms  up  in  all  its 
vast  proportions,  than  they  were  by  those  who  shook 
hands  and  ate  bread  with  them. 

The  same  rule  has  befallen  the  case  of  Him  whom 
this  day  *  celebrates  with  joy  and  exultant  piety,  and 
grateful  trust,  all  over  the  broad  lands  of  Christendom. 
Slowly  has  the  sublime  greatness  of  Jesus  dawned 
on  the  human  intellect,  and  his  exquisite  excellence 
been  felt  by  the  heart.  Even  his  own  disciples  did 
not  know  him.  Peter  rebuked  him  at  one  time,  and 
denied  him  at  another.  Judas  betrayed,  Thomas 
distrusted,  and  all  deserted  him.  We  feel  that  a  veil 
was  on  the  hearts  of  all  who  surrounded  him  in  his 
ministry,  though  at  times  the  veil  was  rent,  and  they 
caught  transient  glimpses  of  his  superhuman  glory. 
The  Jews  did  not  penetrate  his  mystery,  his  glorious 
secret  of  a  universal  kingdom  on  earth  and  a  univer- 
sal salvation  in  heaven  ;  and  the  Romans,  who  were 
not  under  the  sway  of  one  set  of  prejudices,  were 
under  that  of  another,  and  they  crucified  him.  The 
men  of  his  time  did  not  know  him,  because  they  did 
not  possess  the  kindred  traits  of  mind  which  would 
act  as  keys  of  interpretation  to  unlock  the  treasures 
of  his  character.  To  a  warlike  age,  what  was  the 
Prince  of  Peace  ?  to  a  sensual  one,  the  Master  of 
morals  ?  to  a  superstitious  and  idolatrous  one,  the 
Teacher  of  a  pure  and  spiritual  worship  ? 

*  Preached  on  Christmas  Day. 


232  THE    FULNESS    OP    CHRIST. 

We,  too,  with  all  our  other  improvements,  but 
feebly  understand  Jesus  Christ.  His  fulness  has 
hardly  dawned  upon  his  Church.  Our  intellectual 
conceptions  are  too  narrow  and  barren,  our  sensibil- 
ities too  coarse  and  earth-bound,  and  our  characters 
not  high-toned  enough  to  fully  sympathize  with  this 
miracle  and  prodigy  of  earth,  this  glory  of  heaven. 
We  have  entertained  a  mighty  angel  unawares.  He 
said,  "  O  righteous  Father !  the  world  hath  not  known 
thee."  So  hath  it  not  known  thee,  O  Son  of  God ! 
Dark  mists  of  error,  deadening  atmospheres  of  sin, 
cold  clouds  of  unbelief,  have  wrapped  out  of  sight 
the  morning  star,  and  covered  the  rejoicing  blue  of 
heaven  with  gloom. 

Hence  little  can  be  done  to  reveal  the  true  glory  of 
Jesus  by  way  of  eulogy.  The  pith  of  the  matter 
must  be  in  men.  They  must  be  themselves  like  him, 
and  try  to  be  like  him,  and  then  they  will  begin  to 
see  and  know  him  as  he  is,  in  all  his  beautiful  and 
powerful  traits.  The  open  sesame  to  this  depth  of 
wisdom  is  in  the  heart  even  more  than  the  mind. 

The  Apostles  and  Evangelists  wrote  better  lives 
of  him  than  they  themselves  knew.  They  recorded 
"  a  plain,  unvarnished  tale."  They  pronounced  no 
funeral  orations,  wrote  no  obituary,  erected  no  mon- 
ument. They  simply  recited  the  narrative  of  his 
sayings,  doings,  and  sufferings,  and  left  the  stubborn 
facts  to  make  their  own  eulogy  to  the  world. 

Although  this  true  knowledge  of  Jesus  is  slowly 
impressed  on  the  world,  yet  it  is  all-important  in 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST.  233 

itself ;  and  the  practical  advance  of  his  cause,  and 
true  human  welfare,  depends  more  on  the  growth  of 
a  true  idea  of  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  faith,  than 
it  does  upon  any  accuracy  of  creed,  or  intensity  of 
emotion,  or  bustle  of  reform.  Creed,  emotion,  and 
reform  are  all  needed,  but  only  so  far  as  they  involve 
a  correct  notion  of  the  character,  life,  mission,  and 
plan  of  Jesus,  can  they  square  according  to  the  eter- 
nal laws  and  ordinances  of  God  and  his  universe, 
and  be  therefore  either  permanent  or  beneficial. 

The  fulness  of  Christ,  his  complete  and  entire  ful- 
filment of  all  the  qualities  and  conditions  necessary 
to  constitute  him  a  sufficient  Saviour  of  mankind, 
may  best  be  seen  by  an  enumeration  of  some  par- 
ticulars. 

1.  Jesus  was  the  fulfilment  of  Prophecy.  We 
should  have  expected  beforehand  that  so  great  a  be- 
ing would  be  preannounced.  There  would  naturally 
be  signs  of  his  coming.  He  must,  to  fill  out  a  nat- 
ural want  of  the  heart,  be  foreseen  and  forefelt.  He 
was  predicted  even  to  Adam  ;  Abraham  saw  his  day, 
and  was  glad ;  Moses  prophesied  of  a  Prophet  like 
unto  himself,  and  David  and  Isaiah  often  gave  utter- 
ance, in  glowing  strains  of  poetry,  to  the  Jewish  hope 
of  a  coming  Messia*h.  This  people  still  cling  to  the 
prediction  to  this  day,  and  will  not  believe  that  it  has 
been  accomplished.  They  testify  by  their  immortal 
faith  that  the  hope  is  a  real  and  earnest  one.  Even 
in  Pagan  lands,  the  same  fore-feeling  of  a  great  com- 
ing change  in  the  fortunes  of  the  world  was  widely 

20* 


234  THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 

diffused,  according  to  Suetonius  and  other  Latin 
authors.  Plato,  in  Greece,  expressed  the  want  in  a 
remarkable  passage  in  his  writings.  And  wise  men 
from  the  East,  obedient  to  this  deep-seated  anticipa- 
tion, came  to  hail  the  advent  of  Jesus  while  a  babe 
in  the  manger.  So  must  there  have  been  the  break 
of  day  before  the  sun  appeared.  It  adds  dignity 
and  greatness  to  the  Saviour,  that  he  was  thus  the 
subject  of  prophecy,  that  he  was  wanted  before  he 
came,  that  he  had  a  glory  with  the  Father  before  the 
world  was,  and  that  he  was  the  completion  of  the  uni- 
verse and  the  perfecting  stroke  of  humanity.  The 
rivers  and  forests,  sun  and  sky,  flowers  and  fruits, 
were  not  finished.  They  had  a  grace  to  be  clothed 
with  and  a  meaning  to  be  drawn  from  them  which 
only  the  Son  of  God  could  give.  What  Nature 
yearned  after,  but  did  not  attain  in  all  her  mighty 
works,  and  what  man  hoped  to  know  and  be,  came 
to  its  head  and  flowering  in  the  perfect  man  and 
prophetic  Christ  Jesus. 

2.  The  second  particular  is  the  historical^  as  well 
as  the  prophetical  Christ.  He  was  a  fact  as  well  as 
a  hope.  Prophecy  is,  in  truth,  but  history  antici- 
pated, and  history  is  but  prophecy  in  retrospect. 
Jesus  lived,  taught,  suffered,  and  died.  All  this  is 
recorded  in  those  most  wonderful  books  in  the  world, 
the  Four  Gospels.  Many,  in  these  subtile  and  sub- 
jective days,  when  the  mind  is  inclined,  in  literature 
and  art,  to  turn  in  upon  itself,  and  forget  the  grand 
objective  Nature  lying  all  around  us  as  a  school  of 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST.  225 

culture,  are  disposed  to  disregard  the  Historical 
Christ.  But  without  the  record  we  should  be  igno- 
rant of  the  sentiment.  The  truth  must  be  anchored 
where  it  may  be  found.  It  must  have  a  local  habi- 
tation and  a  name.  The  facts  are  the  coarse  shells 
and  husks  to  hold  and  protect  the  tender  kernel  of 
the  spirit.  Jesus  tea(;)ies  forgiveness,  for  instance,  in 
beautiful  words;  but  how  much  more  powerful  is 
the  lesson  when  it  is  elucidated  and  glorified  by  his 
own  conduct,  by  his  act  of  forgiveness  on  the  cruel 
cross !  The  floating  air-castles  of  fine  thoughts  and 
feelings  are  here  put  into  the  iron  and  the  granite  of 
real  facts,  capable  of  constant  reference  and  connec- 
tion and  use.  Here  is  the  Practical  Navigator  by 
which  we  take  our  reckoning  on  the  voyage  of 
life.  And  were  the  churches  all  to  agree  to  abide 
by  the  Four  Gospels  as  their  sole  and  sufficient 
creed,  exacting  and  imposing  no  more,  and  rest  upon 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  pure  Christianity,  and  his 
life  as  the  perfect  exemplification  and  explanation  of 
what  he  taught,  both  union  and  success  would  be 
multiplied  to  an  infinite  degree. 

3.  The  completeness  of  Jesus  as  a  Saviour  is  ex- 
emplified in  a  remarkable  extent  by  his  teachings. 
These  lessons  have  several  striking  characteristics. 
They  do  not  affect  total  originality;  they  are  the 
scions  of  a  new  fruit,  grafted  on  the  old  stocks  of  the 
past.  They  are  the  gold  from  much  sand.  Their 
simplicity  and  dignity  sometimes  blind  us  to  their 
power  and  depth.     The  whole  host  of  the  obvious, 


236  THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 

the  tame,  the  mediocre,  is  passed  over,  and  the  very- 
centre  of  the  target  is  hit  by  every  word.  He  never 
opened  his  lips  without  saying  something  important, 
the  ultimate  and  highest  that  could  be  said  on  that 
point.  When  he  generalized,  as  in  summing  up  all 
human  duty  into  two  rules,  where  Moses  had  made 
ten,  and  most  moralists  many^core,  —  or  in  details, 
where  he  defines  and  illustrates,  as  in  the  parable  of 
the  Talents,  and  the  Good  Samaritan,  — we  see  both 
the  breadth  and  the  accuracy  of  his  intellect.  But 
he  created  as  well  as  gathered.  Where  were  parables 
and  prayers  like  his  ?  where  such  beatitudes  and  dis- 
courses, such  close  replies  in  conversation,  such  sober 
calculation  of  the  truth,  and  such  brilliant  anticipation 
of  the  future  ?  If  this  were  not  all  knowledge,  all  sci- 
ence, it  is  what  is  above  all  knowledge  and  science, 
even  superlative  wisdom,  the  extract  and  quintes- 
sence of  knowledge,  and  without  which  to  know  all 
the  birds,  fishes,  trees,  flowers,  on  earth  and  in  all 
worlds,  makes  the  mind  but  a  huge  curiosity-shop. 
Much  knowledge,  after  all,  as  men  are  too  prone  to 
know  it,  is  but  stuff,  making  men  think  they  are 
something  when  they  are  nothing,  puffing  them  up 
with  the  conceit  that  they  are  wise  when  they  are 
full  of  folly.  The  philosopher,  gazing  at  the  stars 
over  his  head  and  falling  into  a  well  at  his  feet,  is  the 
emblem  of  but  too  much  of  the  science  and  knowl- 
edge on  which  mankind  plume  themselves.  They 
may  know  the  distant,  the  great,  and  the  lofty,  but 
they  may  be  ignorant  of  themselves,  not  know  how 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST.  237 

to  make  the  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body,  or  how  to 
keep  out  of  the  fire  and  water  of  the  passions  and 
appetites.  Jesus  gives  us  not  knowledge  of  facts, 
but  the  wisdom  of  principles,  the  truth  of  God  and 
eternity.  He  can  draw  a  higher  law  from  the  bird 
and  the  flower  than  the  ornithologist  or  botanist, 
even  the  minute  and  the  mighty  care  of  Providence 
over  all  its  works  and  creatures.  He  can  infer  from 
the  passing  news  of  the  day,  when  told  of  the  acci- 
dent which  befalls  the  men  of  Siloam,  and  the  cru- 
elty of  King  Herod,  better  doctrines  than  the  histo- 
rian. When  he  converses,  we  feel  that  he  always 
has  the  best  of  the  argument;  and  when  he  teaches, 
it  is  with  the  easy  majesty  of  a  king,  with  self-respect 
and  dignity  to  others.  The  form  of  his  instructions, 
too,  is  blended  with  wisdom,  as  the  color  with  the 
leaf.  By  historical  associations,  by  natural  objects, 
by  human  employments,  by  parable  and  by  story,  he 
utters  his  godlike  sayings,  and  enshrines  them  in  a 
form  which  will  at  once  illustrate  and  endear  them. 
The  world  outgrows  its  teachers  one  after  another, 
and  when  once  gone  there  is  no  revivah  No  combi- 
nation could  bring  back  the  sophists  of  Greece,  the 
rhetoricians  of  Rome,  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of 
Judea,  the  Magi  of  Persia,  and  the  Schoolmen  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  But  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  this  Teacher, 
that  the  world  does  not  outgrow  him  ;  but  he  has  an- 
ticipated the  world, ^and  even  yet  it  has  not  grown 
up  to  him.  Then,  too,  he  spoke  the  truth  in  love,  — 
not  in  scorn,  not  even  in  conscious  superiority.     So 


238 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 


much  sacredness  has  been  attached  to  Jesus,  that  his 
disciples  have  sometimes  been  insensible  to  the  intel- 
lectual as  well  as  moral  qualities  exhibited  in  his  in- 
struction. But  it  would  be  easy  to  show  by  the 
canons  of  criticism,  if  it  were  necessary,  that  no 
poet,  prophet,  orator,  or  philosopher  has  embodied 
such  wisdom  in  such  a  form,  and  instinct  with  such 
a  life  and  immortality.  The  mood  of  mind  in  which 
we  come  from  a  book  —  a  true  test  of  its  real  merit 
or  demerit  —  bears  clearest  evidence  of  the  perfection 
of  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  their  full-toned  har- 
mony with  our  rarest  and  best  selves.  When  we 
rise  from  some  books,  it  is  with  an  excited  mind ; 
from  others,  with  a  saddened,  or  an  anxious,  or  a 
scornful,  or  a  self-satisfied,  or  a  fantastic  one.  But 
the  perusal  of  the  Gospels  leaves  a  robust,  calm,  life- 
like, daylight  atmosphere  around  us,  in  which  duty 
is  invested  with  new  dignity  and  worth,  trial  puts 
on  a  milder  feature,  and  all  of  existence  looks  clearer, 
sweeter,  more  real  and  more  hopeful  and  glorious. 

4.  In  that  sphere,  even  higher  than  thought  and 
teaching,  of  action^  the  fulness  of  Jesus  is  yet  more 
conclusive ;  for  it  is  easier,  so  much  easier,  to  say 
than  to  do,  to  utter  even  glorious  truths,  than  to  be  and 
to  do  all  that  becomes  the  highest  and  purest  style  of 
character.  Not  to  overdo,  nor  underdo  ;  not  to  go  too 
far,  or  to  come  short ;  not  to  exaggerate  one  duty  to 
neglect  or  undervalue  another ;  not  to  make  faults 
even  out  of  virtues,  or  let  our  deeds  outrun  our  actual 
moral  state  ;  not  to  be  swayed  by  conventional  stand- 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST.  239 

ards  one  iota  over  the  line  of  rectitude,  but  to  yield 
instinctively  to  the  true  motive,  without  calculation 
and  without  compulsion,  —  this  is  the  labor,  this  is 
the  work,  which  only  the  True  One  can  do.  Jesus 
moved  in  many  human  relations,  as  son,  friend, 
brother,  citizen ;  in  those  belonging  to  his  mission, 
as  Teacher,  Reformer,  Saviour,  Example,  Master, 
Prophet,  Miracle- Worker ;  in  spiritual  and  abstract 
ones,  as  a  conscious  and  responsible  intelligence,  a 
child  of  the  Everlasting  Father,  and  an  heir  of  im- 
mortal being; — and  yet  in  all  he  could  say.  Who 
convicteth  me  of  sin  ?  —  and  the  answer  came  back 
from  Pilate,  I  find  in  him  nothing  amiss ;  and  from 
Judas,  I  have  betrayed  innocent  blood  ;  and  from  the 
centurion.  Verily,  this  was  a  righteous  man.  The 
graceful  harmony  he  maintained  between  his  mira- 
cles and  his  common  conduct,  the  unconscious  and 
yet  living  tone  of  his  energy,  pulsing  out  as  natu- 
rally from  his  being  as  blood  to  and  fro  out  of  the 
heart,  the  just  attention  he  paid  to  the  venerated 
and  the  conventional  while  he  introduced  the  new 
and  holier  type  of  character,  assure  us  that,  to  live 
and  act  like  Jesus,  we  must  be  like  him.  No  seem- 
ing, no  constraint,  no  rules  of  duty,  no  servile  copy- 
ing of  example,  no  hasty  resolves,  and  no  reluctant 
practice,  can  bring  up  our  moral  posture  to  this  dig- 
nity and  uprightness,  and  inspire  us  to  act  in  all 
things  to  the  full  bent  and  top  of  our  spiritual  being, 
without  drawback  or  discount 

But  while  all  admit  essentially  the  high  and  per- 


240  THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 

feet  style  of  Jesus's  action,  all  do  not  consider  it^  im- 
measurable power.  It  is  like  the  motion  of  the  globe 
itself,  so  easy  that  we  do  not  perceive  it ;  like  the 
mnsic  of  the  spheres,  so  melodious  that  we  do  not 
hear  it  Power  with  violence  all  men  can  appre- 
ciate, but  power  with  gentleness  and  order  is  not  so 
palpable  to  most.  They  can  see  the  force  of  the 
lightning,  but  not  of  the  sunbeams.  Power  is  not 
always  seen  until  its  reaction  ;  the  force  of  the  blow 
is  measured  by  the  extent  of  the  recoil.  The  effect 
of  Jesus  is  seen  in  the  reaction  of  nations,  the  recoil 
of  Christendom,  the  answer  back  of  regenerated  mil- 
lions. These  stupendous  facts  of  history  utter  the 
greatness  of  his  aciion  better  than  it  were  possible 
for  our  judgments  to  estimate  it,  or  even  our  imagi- 
nations to  sketch  and  color  it.  Jesus  spoke,  and  the 
world  is  slowly  rising  up  as  from  a  bed  of  sleep,  to 
hear.  Jesus  worked,  and  a  race  send  back  the  infi- 
nite movements  of  life  to  portray  the  depth  and  vol- 
nme  and  fertility  of  that  great  mission  to  man.  The 
prevalence  of  Jesus  over  the  earth,  the  harmonizing 
power  of  his  character  even  where  his  doctrines  are 
bones  of  contention,  and  the  promise  of  a  new  human 
state  typed  and  colored  and  savored  after  one  spirit, 
show  as  no  words  can  utter  the  sublime  depths  of 
that  spiritual  action  which  the  Lord  enacted  in  the 
few  years  of  his  ministry,  and  the  victory  which  he 
thus  gained,  not  only  for  himself,  but  also  for  us. 
Well  might  he  exult,  and  say,  I  saw  Satan  as  light- 
ning fall  from  heaven.  All  evil  will  and  must  and 
does  fall  before  such  omnipotent  virtue. 


THE    FTLXESS    OF    CHRIST.  241 

5.  Bnt  in  fnlness  of  suffering,  as  well  as  of  thoogbt 
and  of  action,  we  discern  the  real  greatness  of  Jesus. 
This  completes  the  circle.  In  trial,  temptation,  suf- 
fering, and  death,  —  in  that  he  was  tested  in  the  wil- 
derness, was  weary  at  the  well,  wept  at  the  tomb  of 
Lazarus,  learned  obedience  by  the  things  he  suffered, 
uttered  strong  crying  and  tears,  and  died  on  the 
cross,  —  we  feel  a  threefold  chord  of  attraction.  Had 
he  always  been  successful,  always  victorious,  and 
always  happy,  he  could  have  been  no  Saviour  for  a 
race  conditioned  and  charactered  as  ours,  —  with 
many  falls  to  discourage  us,  with  many  temptations 
to  assault,  with  fears  within  and  fightings  without, 
and  the  solemn  destiny  over  alL  But  now,  inasmuch 
as  he  hath  suffered,  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  suc- 
cor them  that  are  tempted.  Lifted  up  on  the  cross, 
he  draws  all  men  to  him.  Only  -wise,  only  good) 
only  strong,  the  Saviour  would  have  been  far  from 
sufficient  for  all  exigencies  of  human  nature  and  dis- 
cipline, unless  he  had  stooped  under  the  heavy  bur- 
den of  the  cross,  and  cried  in  exta^mest  agony,  **  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  The 
poor  in  lowest  want,  the  most  abject  slave,  the 
mortally  sick  and  wounded  and  dying,  raise  their 
eyes  to  the  sufferer  on  the  cross,  and  catch  a  gleam 
of  consolation,  sweet  and  unutterable.  We  can  pull 
at  the  hem  of  his  garment,  as  did  the  poor  woman, 
and  in  faith  and  hope  we  rest  assured  that  in  awful 
crises,  in  future  judgments,  in  scenes  of  glory  and  of 
terror  too  dazzling  for  mortal  eyes  to  behold,  his  face 

21 


242 


THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 


will  be  turned  to  every  disciple  with  compassion,  and 
his  arms  stretched  out  in  relief.  Authority  is  given 
him  to  execute  judgment  because  he  is  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  knows  our  nature,  and  can  make  allow- 
ance and  alleviation  for  our  errors  and  sins. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  satisfying  to  the  intellect  to 
dwell  on  perfect  truth,  to  the  conscience,  on  the  abso- 
lute right,  to  the  heart,  on  infinite  love  ;  and  when, 
from  the  heights  of  the  Divinity,  we  fall  back  wearied 
and  discouraged  to  earth,  it  comforts  us  to  see  the 
image  of  all  these  glories  in  their  fulness  in  Jesus. 
He  is  the  Mediator,  standing  midway,  bringing  God 
down  to  men  and  men  up  to  God.  He  stands  be- 
tween the  past  and  the  future  as  the  Prophetic 
and  Historical  Man,  and  as  Teacher,  Actor,  and 
Sufferer  fulfilled  his  august  mission.  But  the  world 
has  not  known  him  ;  his  Church  have  not  seen  him 
as  he  is,  or  it  never  would  have  enacted  horrid 
persecutions,  and  uttered  anathemas,  and  perpe- 
trated pious  frauds  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  The 
Church  has  called  him  Very  God,  but  it  has  failed  to 
see  what  was  godlike  in  him,  and  imitate  it.  The 
systems  of  philosophy  have  overtopped  with  their 
rank  growth  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  The  tyrannies 
of  government  have  cramped  and  chained  the  human 
mind,  until  it  could  not  recognize  the  Lord  of  liberty. 
The  heavy  sins  of  time  and  sense  have  weighed  on 
the  knowledge  of  a  spiritual  Redeemer.  The  life  of 
Jesus  has  once  been  written  by  disciples  unconscious 
in  a  measure  how  great  it  was  ;  but  it  is  now  writing 


THE    FULNESS  OF  CHRIST.  243 

itself  in  large  characters  on  institutions,  nations, 
churches,  across  continents  and  centuries.  King- 
doms are  its  sentences,  and  churches  its  periods,  and 
civilizations  its  paragraphs  and  chapters.  The  Spirit 
of  all  truth,  wisdom,  and  love  open  our  eyes  to  see, 
and  our  hearts  to  feel,  the  grace  and  power  and  glory 
and  fulness  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  Well  may 
the  world  enact  a  glad  jubilee  for  the  birth  of  the 
Good  Brother,  ^ho  came  to  help  us,  came  into  the 
world  not  to  condemn  the  world,  but  that  the  world 
through  him  might  be  saved.  Let  the  world  be 
happy  and  buoyant  and  grateful,  and  let  every  cheer- 
ful and  gladsome  association  of  gift  and  friendship 
and  love  and  childhood  and  festival  and  hilarity 
weave  a  charm  for  the  day,  and  consecrate  it  and 
imparadise  it  to  the  memory  and  the  heart.  Shun, 
O,  shun  the  cold  faith  that  stumbles  at  reasons,  and 
demands  facts  and  dates,  and  does  not  see  and  feel 
the  spell  of  a  day,  the  thrill  of  old  memorials,  and 
that  does  not  sing  and  shout  again  with  angels  and 
with  angelic  children,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  to  men."  For  then 
glory  would  be  given  with  new,  spontaneous  wor- 
ship, and  peace  would  say  to  clashing  Turk  and 
Christian,  "  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your 
wrath,"  and  good-will  would  overflow  from  happy 
homes  to  sweeten  the  sour,  harsh  world,  and  endue 
it  with  the  savor  of  Christ,  mild  and  gracious. 

For  with  reverence    and  trust  we   recognize  his 
right  to  this  loyalty  from  the  human  soul  and  kind. 


244  THE    FULNESS    OF    CHRIST. 

In  narrow  Judea,  he  rose  from  a  peasant's  home,  and 
was  the  all-wise  teacher,  the  all-perfect  actor.  Not 
having  learned  letters,  he  became  universal  in  wis- 
dom, and  the  world  sits  humbly  at  his  feet.  The  son 
of  a  carpenter,  he  has  ascended  the  throne  of  the 
world  and  of  all  ages.  Dying  upon  a  cross,  he  has 
become  the  Author  of  Eternal  Life.  "  Blessing  and 
honor  and  glory  and  power  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth 
upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever  and 
ever." 


DISCOURSE    XIV. 


JESUS  THE  RE-CREATOR. 

NEITHBB  18  THERE  SALVATION  IN  ANT  OTHER,  FOR  THERE  IS  NONE 
OTHER  NAME  UNDER  HEAVEN  GIVEN  AMONG  MEN  WHEREBY  WB 
MCST  BE  SAVED. — ActS  iv.  12. 

The  text  declares  that  Christ's  is  the  only  saving 
name  on  earth.  Other  terms  are  used  elsewhere  in 
the  New  Testament,  to  indicate  the  paramount  value 
of  his  religion  over  all  other  instrumentalities  for 
man's  well-being  in  this  world  and  in  that  to  come. 
"  The  light  of  the  world,"  "  the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life,"  "the  bread  from  heaven,"  "the  water  of 
life,"  and  many  comparisons  of  a  similar  character, 
are  made  both  in  the  instructions  of  Christ  and  of 
his  Apostles.  But,  either  from  an  inadequate  idea 
of  the  depth  and  inveteracy  of  moral  evil  on  one 
side,  or  from  a  failure  to  see  the  perfect  fitness  of 
God's  remedy  for  it  on  the  other,  this  truth  is  yet 
widely  unfelt  or  denied.  Men  do  not  confess  that 
here  is  the  very  help  they  need.  They  resort  else- 
where. They  apply  to  this  or  that  pretender,  instead 
of  the  only  infallible  Physician.     With  some  insuffi- 


246  JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR. 

cient  and  temporary  expedient,  they  patch  up  evils 
which  the  miraculous  touch  of  the  Son  of  God  is 
requisite  to  cure.  Lanterns  and  lamps  are  of  no  lit- 
tle use,  but  he  would  not  be  accounted  wise  who 
should  propose  to  substitute  them  for  the  sun.  This 
age  has  great  skill  in  its  arts  of  fashioning  matter, 
and  using  immaterial  agencies  for  its  purposes.  But 
the  soul  is  another  world,  and  the  soul's  salvation 
another  work.  And  we  must  concede  that  he  who 
created  its  immortal  faculties,  and  set  in  motion  its 
wondrous  springs  of  affection  and  action,  had  a 
knowledge  of  its  wants,  and  a  power  to  meet  its 
manifold  exigencies,  here  and  hereafter,  by  means 
and  motives  which  infinitely  transcend  human  de- 
vices. Let  us  consider  some  of  the  substitutes  which 
have  been  proposed  by  some  men  for  the  great  in- 
strument of  man's  highest  good. 

1.  Liberty  has  been  proposed  in  modern  times  as 
a  specific  for  all  earth's  sins  and  woes.  She  is  the 
goddess,  as  Mammon  is  the  god,  of  the  present  civil- 
ization, —  not  a  mere  nominal  divinity,  but  adored 
with  actual  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  obeyed  by  loyal 
devotees.  Summoned  upon  the  theatre  of  Europe 
by  the  fearless  voice  of  Luther,  breaking  forth  in  the 
tremendous  throes  of  successive  French  revolutions, 
and  winning  her  more  complete  triumph  in  the  New 
World,  liberty  is  one  of  the  strongest  passions  of 
modern  history.  And  no  wonder.  When  you  have 
entered  the  house  of  human  bondage,  and  walked 
through  all  its  dark  corridors,  and  looked  into  its  sun- 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  247 

less  dungeons,  have  counted  its  grim  chains  and 
manacles,  shuddered  at  its  racks  and  wheels,  still 
rusty  with  human  blood,  heard  "  the  sighing  of  the 
prisoner,"  and  traced  his  sorrows  etched  with  a  nail 
upon  the  stone  wall  of  his  cell,  and  listened  to  the 
iron  doors  grating  harsh  thunder  upon  their  hinges, 
and  remembered  the  dreadful  secrets  of  the  prison- 
house,  no  wonder  your  blood  boils  at  man's  inhu- 
manity to  man.  The  Bastiles  of  tyranny  have  fallen 
before  this  potent  indignation.  Let  them  fall.  There 
are  some  evils  too  great  to  be  borne.  All  honor  is  due, 
and  has  been  paid,  to  those  who,  by  their  "  labors, 
dangers,  and  sufferings,"  have  lifted  the  yoke  from 
the  neck  of  humanity,  and  said  to  myriads,  "  Ye  are 
men,  go  free."  The  names  of  Washington,  Lafay- 
ette, and  Clarkson,  the  several  heroes  of  American, 
French,  and  African  freedom,  will  endure  as  long  as 
the  earth. 

But  then  we  need  only  glance  at  the  condition  of 
the  freest  nations  to  see  that  Liberty,  star-crowned  as 
she  is,  can  be  no  substitute  for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Under  her  dominion  men  may  know  their 
rights,  but  they  need  another  master  to  teach  them 
their  duties.  Liberty  must  take  law  into  her  part- 
nership, or  she  is  but  another  name  for  license.  And 
when  the  general  relations  of  society  are  equitably 
adjusted,  and  justice  done  between  man  and  man, 
what  a  wide  empire  of  character  is  beyond  her  reach ! 
The  joys  and  sorrows  of  home,  the  mixed  fortunes  of 
adversity  and  prosperity,  the  passions  and  affections 


248  JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR. 

of  moral  beings,  habit,  taste,  and  education, — all  these 
need  other  comforters,  controllers,  and  sanctifiers  than 
her.  National  liberty,  glorious  boon  as  it  is,  is  exter- 
nal. But  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  makes  his 
people  free,  is  carried  into  the  inmost  recesses  of  the 
mind.  Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  lib- 
erty,—  liberty  from  anger  and  malice  and  lust  and 
drunkenness,  and  the  whole  legion  of  evil  spirits 
wherewith  society  is  possessed.  The  potsherds  of 
the  earth  may  strive  together;  but  the  only  complete 
emancipation  even  from  the  bondage  of  tangible 
chains  and  whips,  the  slave-ship  and  the  slave-mar- 
ket, must  descend  from  a  higher  plane  than  that  of 
the  Treest  human  constitutions.  God  must  thunder 
and  lighten  out  of  heaven.  The  "  Father  of  his 
Country"  may  live  and  die,  but  his  great  example 
has  not  made  even  his  own  State  a  land  of  freemen. 
We  may  write  free  laws  for  ever  ;  but  so  long  as  Anti- 
christ prevails,  even  the  African  slave-trade  will  char- 
ter vessels  from  our  many-churched  cities,  and  invest 
capital  from  American  merchants.  Thus  even  the 
perfections  of  liberty  cannot  come  until  the  fulness 
of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  ;  then  how  much  less 
the  thousand  retired  and  refined  blessings  which  lib- 
erty, from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  cannot  dispense. 
2.  Some,  again,  seem  to  worship  our  Modern  Civ- 
ilization as  the  last  point  of  excellence  man  is  to 
attain  on  earth.  The  crying  demand  for  a  spiritual 
regeneration  is  postponed  for  external  ease  and  lux- 
ury.    It  must  be  confessed  that  a  wonderful  energy 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  249 

and  ingenuity  are  now  abroad  in  the  earth.  Com- 
fortable houses,  beautiful  garments,  abundance  to  eat 
and  to  drink,  growing  cities,  a  wide-spread  com- 
merce, expeditious  travelling,  news  sped  by  lightning, 
a  vast  territory  rapidly  peopling,  are  familiar  pictures 
to  our  minds.  But  do  not  so  many  curious  appli- 
ances and  comforts  wait  upon  the  body,  that  there  is 
danger  the  soul  will  go  to  sleep  ?  When  the  sacred 
writer  wished  to  describe  the  growing  degeneracy  of 
the  chosen  people,  he  said,  "  Jeshuran  (a  term  of  en- 
dearment for  Israel)  waxed  fat,  and  kicked."  That 
phrase  describes  the  two  great  eras  in  a  nation's 
growth  :  first,  of  prosperity ;  and  secondly,  of  inso- 
lent power,  forgetting  right.  Thus  modern  civiliza- 
tion has  woven  so  thick  a  veil,  that  many  seem  to  be 
incapable  or  indisposed  to  look  through  it,  and  to  see 
underneath  the  living  texture  of  divine  laws,  and  our 
accountableness  to  the  will  of  the  Supreme. 

Strange  and  deplorable  result,  if  home  become  so 
attractive  that  it  should  prove  a  rival  to  heaven! 
Sad  mistake,  if  the  charms  of  earthly  friendship  and 
comfortable  life  should  dull  our  sensibilities  to  our 
holy  relationship  to  God  and  Christ! 

We  need  to  know  that  what  is  best  and  safest  in 
this  modern  civilization  has  flowed  from  Christianity ; 
but  that,  so  far  as  this  vast  scope  and  movement  of 
human  affairs  is  disconnected  from  Christ,  as  its  con- 
trolling principle  and  sanctifying  motive,  it  is  base 
and  soulless  and  dangerous ;  that  there  is  hazard  of 
entombing  our  souls  in  this  magnificent  earthly  good. 


250  JESUS    TPIE    RE-CREATOR. 

We  need  to  recall  to  mind  that  the  splendid  gift  of 
life  was  not  bestowed  that  we  might  dress  in  purple 
or  fine  linen,  or  fare  sumptuously  every  day,  or  even 
that  we  might  ride  a  mile  a  minute,  cross  the  ocean 
in  ten  days,  or  send  a  despatch  round  the  globe  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  These  great  discoveries  and 
developments  in  the  world  of  matter  indicate  only 
the  more  significantly  the  leadings  of  Divine  Prov- 
idence, that  there  should  be  corresponding  improve- 
ments in  the  moral  world. 

He  who  rides  a  mile  a  minute  ought  to  be  using 
that  grand  conveyance  on  no  fool's  errand.  He  who 
can  cross  the  Atlantic  in  ten  days  should  feel  himself 
commissioned  to  do  some  great  and  good  work  for 
man,  when  the  Almighty  has  thus  put  in  his  hands 
the  sceptre  of  the  winds  and  waves,  and  they  obey 
him.  He  who  can  send  swifter  than  the  sun's  flight 
messages  from  clime  to  clime,  ought  to  charter  the 
telegraph  with  some  noble  word,  some  good  tidings 
of  good,  like  that  ancient  strain  of  piety  and  peace 
which  broke  upon  the  ears  of  shepherds  watching 
their  flocks  by  night. 

Modern  civilization,  apart  from  the  spiritual  sanc- 
tions, is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  it  cannot  take  the 
place  of  the  Lord  from  heaven.  It  is  all  good  and 
safe,  when  kept  down  at  the  proper  secondary  mark ; 
but  if  it  arise,  and  assume  prouder  titles,  and  the 
privilege  of  monopolizing  immortal  capacities  for 
mortal  uses,  the  watchmen  must  cry  aloud,  and 
spare  not.     It  is  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  ofiice 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  2ol 

of  the  Christian  Church  and  ministry,  at  the  present 
day,  to  lift  up  a  steady  warning  against  the  predom- 
inance of  material  interests.  Firmly,  perseveringly, 
without  anger,  and  without  despair,  to  resist  the 
ocean-tide  of  worldliness,  and  to  say  to  its  proud 
waves,  "  Thus  far  and  no  farther."  For  none  can 
look  abroad,  and  not  see  that  the  world,  so  called, 
has  got  a  fearful  hold  of  men's  minds  in  this  country, 
and  throughout  the  civilized  nations.  Everything, 
even  virtue,  is  to  be  turned  to  profit.  What  does  not 
bring  money  is  not,  in  general,  thought  to  be  worth 
anything.  Then  is  there  no  fear  that  we  have  an- 
other God  than  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  even 
Mammon,  as  the  actual  deity  of  our  worship  ? 

Tried  by  every  rule,  and  weighed  in  every  balance, 
modern  civilization,  as  such,  is  found  wanting.  Ill 
can  it  suffice  for  its  own  temporal  needs,  and  keep 
itself  out  of  fire  and  water  ;  how  much  less  meet  the 
great  need  of  immortal  man  I  111  can  it  stand  in  the 
place  of  Christ  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  Its 
god  is  gold,  its  aim  is  self ;  too  many  of  its  govern- 
ments are  tyrannies ;  too  many  of  its  critics,  Sodoms ; 
its  traffic,  alas,  is  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  God's 
children  ;  its  highest  honors  are  military  butcheries ; 
and  its  only  tolerable  deserts  are  discolored  reflec- 
tions from  His  glory  who  died  on  the  cross. 

3.  I  pass  to  another  name,  that  would  seem  to  be 
named  by  some  as  a  substitute  for  the  Gospel,  Ref' 
ormationj  Philanthropy,  a  new  organization  of  society. 
The  plea  is  ingenious,  because  it  has  some  truth  to 


252  JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR. 

give  it  countenance.  It  is  said,  that,  notwithstand- 
ing Christianity  and  the  Christian  Church  have 
existed  so  many  centuries  in  the  world,  the  dreadful 
evils  of  society  have  gone  unreformed.  The  Gospel 
has  not  yet  brought  men  to  give  glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  or  peace  and  good-will  toward  men ;  there- 
fore the  need  of  a  new  instrument,  Reformation,  or 
Association.  True,  the  Gospel  has  failed  of  many 
of  its  designed  results,  but  it  is  because  it  has  been 
corrupted,  both  under  Greek,  Catholic,  and  Protes- 
tant forms.  But  there  it  is,  in  the  life  of  Christ,  in 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  it  will  never 
suffer  man  to  give  sleep  to  his  eyes,  or  slumber  to  his 
eyelids,  until  it  has  made  all  things  new. 

It  is  said,  also,  by  the  reformer,  that  though  men 
make  institutions,  institutions  in  turn  make  men. 
That  they  act  and  react  upon  one  another.  That 
the  laws,  the  customs,  and  the  management  of  civil 
and  religious  concerns,  exert  a  far-reaching  control 
over  the  individual  character.  For  example,  that 
you  may  preach  heavenly-mindedness,  but  how  can 
you  expect  any  considerable  amount  of  spirituality 
on  a  slave  plantation,  in  the  brutal  camp,  or  in  the 
damp,  cold  cellars  of  city  pauperism  ?  We  confess 
we  cannot.  For  men  are  incalculably  affected  by 
the  circumstances  and  influences  around  them,  the 
media  through  which  they  look  and  in  which  they 
act;  and  though  they  may,  in  a  moment  of  conscious 
strength,  adopt  the  poet's  motto,  "  The  mind  is  its 
own  place,"  yet  in  most  things,  and  for  most  pur- 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  253 

poses,  we  know  but  too  well  that  the  body  is  the 
mind's  place.  It  becomes,  accordingly,  a  matter  of 
the  last  consequence  that  the  permanent  institutions 
of  society,  and  the  customs  of  the  time,  should  all 
square  with  the  Christian  standard.  Christ  must 
judge  them,  and  decide  whether  they  shall  stand  or 
fall.  He  must  judge  war,  every  war,  and  determine 
whether  it  shall  be  allowed  any  longer  to  rage  and 
devour.  He  must  judge  slavery,  and  pronounce  the 
condemning  sentence  of  its  overthrow.  He  must  ar- 
raign the  murderous  traffic  in  spirituous,  poisonous 
drinks,  and  say  whether  it  shall  continue  to  hatch,  by 
the  wholesale,  pauperism,  and  gambling,  and  licen- 
tiousness, and  murder.  He  must  sit  as  sole  and  final 
umpire  upon  all  the  great  questions  that  now  agitate 
society,  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  the  rights 
and  sphere  of  woman,  the  mode  of  land-holding,  the 
organization  of  society  by  association  or  otherwise, 
the  relations  of  the  classes  and  pursuits  of  men  one 
to  another,  social  and  international  intercourse,  com- 
mercial restrictions  and  civil  disabilities,  the  lawful- 
ness of  certain  employments  detrimental  to  the  weal 
of  portions  of  society,  the  multiform  practices  of 
doing  evil  that  good  may  come,  and  the  doctrine  of 
expediency. 

And  in  this  just  judgment,  whatever  Christ  by  his 
word  rejects,  we,  who  are  his  followers,  must  reject; 
and  whatever  he  commands,  we  must  do,  let  who- 
ever will  say  nay. 

So  much  we  yield  to  Reformation.     It  is  a  great 

22 


254  JESUS  THE  re-creator/ 

and  good  work  in  our  day.  It  is,  properly  conceived 
and  executed,  the  application  of  Christianity  to  so- 
ciety. It  is  the  parallelism  of  the  Gospel  with  hu- 
manity. It  is  the  realization  of  the  ideas  of  Christ. 
There  is  no  danger  of  too  much  discussion  and  agi- 
tation on  these  matters,  provided  it  be  in  candor  and 
kindness  of  heart. 

With  such  qualifications,  we  bid  God-speed  to  the 
cause  of  prison  discipline,  improved  social  organiza- 
tion and  life,  prevention  of  pauperism,  freedom,  peace, 
temperance,  chastity.  We  cannot  approve,  indeed, 
of  every  word  that  is  said,  or  every  act  that  is  done, 
in  these  great  causes.  What  human  undertakings 
are  not  marred  by  passion  and  imperfection  ?  But 
he  must  be  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times,  who  does 
not  see  that  a  new  era  of  the  world's  destiny  has 
opened. 

But  what  we  protest  against  is,  simply,  that  moral 
reformation,  or  any  new  organization  of  society,  can 
take  the  place,  as  some  seem  to  contend,  of  the  relig- 
ion of  Jesus  Christ.  This  would  argue  an  exclusive- 
ness  and  illiberality  ill  befitting  those  who  call  them- 
selves philanthropists.  For,  in  the  outset,  how  could 
these  great  moral  movements  start,  unless  there  were 
the  heaven-derived  and  omnipotent  influences  of 
Christian  ideas  acting  behind  ?  This  is  the  ever- 
flowing  river,  that  sets  in  motion  all  the  wheels  and 
complicated  machinery  of  practical  philanthropy. 
This  is  the  exhaustless  reservoir  and  lake  that  fills . 
all  the  pipes,  aqueducts,  and  fountains,  and  quenches 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  255 

a  city's  thirst,  and  cleanses  a  city's  impurity.     Christ 
is  the  reformer's  wisdom  and  guidance  and  strength, 
and  without  him  he  could  do  nothing.    Then,  again, 
grant  that  you  could  by  a  possibility  get  the  world 
all  reformed,  the  timepiece  wound  up  and  running 
well,  property  more  equalized,  education  and  happi- 
ness universal.    How  long  would  the  millennium  last, 
without  Christ  ?     Self  is  still  there,  and  passion  is 
busy,  and  the  old  man  will  again  come  to  life  though 
he  has  once  been  crucified  with  the  lusts  thereof; 
and  then  the  world  is  as  bad  as  it  was  before,  and 
you  have  all  your  work   to  do  over   again.     No; 
Christ  is  the  only  sovereign  and  legitimate  reformer, 
as  he  is  the  Saviour 'of  the  individual  soul,  and  those 
only  who  go  forth  in  his  name  and  spirit  are  mighty 
to  the  pulling  down  of  strong-holds.     He,  and  he 
only,  bears  a  commission  and  power  from  heaven, 
to  re-create  the  world,  to  regenerate  human  society, 
as  the  human  heart,  with  the  grace  and  truth  of 
God ;  to  reform  mankind,  and,  when  that  is  done, 
keep  them  reformed,  and  thus  make  the  sceptre  of 
his  kingdom  a  perpetual  sceptre  of  righteousness. 

4.  Again,  and  lastly,  Education,  great  and  benefi- 
cent as  its  power  is,  cannot  of  itself  redeem  the  world. 
Far  be  it  from  my  lips,  which  have  not  unfrequently 
been  opened  to  plead  its  cause,  to  utter  a  word  in 
its  disparagement.  If  the  world  is  ever  to  be  better 
and  happier,  it  must  be  in  no  slight  measure  by  a 
better  family  and  common-school  Christian  nurture. 
For  as  long  as  we  take  the  young,  and  "  score  them 


256  JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR. 

all  over"  with  our  prejudices,  and  warp  their  unso- 
phisticated minds  into  the  so-called  ways  of  the 
world,  which  are  too  often  ways  of  deceit  and  crook- 
edness, we  cannot  expect  to  see  any  rapid  advance- 
ment of  the  E-edeemer's  kingdom.  But  education, 
like  all  those  great  movements  of  benevolence  to 
which  reference  has  been  made,  is  powerless  of 
good  when  disjoined  from  Christ.  The  culture  of 
the  mind  exclusively  becomes  a  doubtful  good,  if 
moral  training  keep  not  an  even  pace  with  it.  Too 
long  have  we  been  content  to  unfold  the  intellectual, 
and  to  let  the  conscience,  the  moral  affections,  and 
the  spiritual  aspirations  run  to  waste.*  Our  schools 
ought  all  to  be  schools  of  Christ,  by  his  law  being 
held  supreme,  and  his  spirit  governing  every  word 
and  imbuing  every  lesson.  Jesus,  as  the  perfect  rep- 
resentative of  our  spiritual  nature  in  its  development, 
the  Son  of  Man  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God,  encour- 
ages the  earliest  moral  training.  He  called  children 
to  him.  He  chided  his  disciples  who  would  repel 
them.  He  pronounced  his  blessing  upon  them.  At 
one  time,  he  set  a  little  child  in  the  midst,  and  bade 
his  disciples  be  converted  and  become  like  little  chil- 
dren, or  they  could  not  enter  his  kingdom.  And  he 
left  it  in  charge  to  his  Apostles,  "  Feed  my  lambs." 
Education,  then,  in  its  higher  forms,  has  the  explicit 
encouragement  of  Him  who  knew  what  was  in  man. 

*  It  has  been  well  said,  "  There  is  but  one  high  school,  and  it  is  that 
in  which  the  heart  is  educated." 


JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR.  257 

But  without  the  alliance  of  the  Gospel,  this  great 
instrument  would  be  but  a  broken  reed  to  lean  upon. 
We  have  thus  cursorily  glanced  at  liberty,  at  mod- 
ern civilization,  moral  reformations,  and  education, 
and  have  found  them  all  good  in  themselves,  and  in 
their  place,  but  each  and  all  inadequate  to  take  the 
place  of  the  heaven-sent  Gospel,  and  prove  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation.  In 
fact,  that  what  is  essentially  good  in  them  is  due  to 
Christianity ;  that  they  are  fruit-bearing  branches, 
it  the  life-sustaining  root,  —  they  the  dependent 
streams,  it  the  ever-living  fountain.  And  what  is 
now  needed  to  carry  these  noble  movements  to 
new  heights  of  purity  and  power,  and  make  them 
felt  more  generally  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  community,  is  a  more  direct  and  courageous 
application  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Let,  then, 
our  freemen  be  freemen  in  the  Lord.  Let  our  great 
statesmen  strike  the  high  key  of  Christian  principle, 
instead  of  for  ever  appealing  to  a  sordid,  penny-wise 
expediency,  and  they  will  find  the  hearts  of  a  Chris- 
tian people  answering  to  them,  as  deep  unto  deep. 
Let  our  civilization  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and 
then  it  will  arise  from  its  grovelling,  and  become  a 
blessing,  and  a  beauty,  and  a  joy  among  men.  Let 
our  moral  reformers,  burying  their  personal  quarrels 
and  private  griefs,  and  taking  the  lofty  vantage- 
ground  of  Christian  ideas  and  aims,  blow  Iheir 
awakening  trumpets  with  their  present  zeal,  and  they 

22" 


258  JESUS    THE    RE-CREATOR. 

will  shake  down  the  walls  of  every  heathen  Jericho 
which  they  thus  encompass.  Let  our  teachers  and 
professors  of  every  branch  of  learning,  art,  and 
science  drink  of  the  pure  spirit  of  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus,  and  they  will  acquire  an  unsuspected 
power  over  all  the  avenues  to  the  human  heart,  and 
will  be  able  to  train  up  a  generation  of  the  just  and 
wise,  and  lead  on  the  happy  ages  of  the  Millennium. 
We  end,  therefore,  where  we  began.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  dying  martyr,  "  None  but  Christ,  none 
but  Christ."  "  Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any 
other;  for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved." 
Let  us  often  repeat  these  words  in  the  conflict  of 
human  opinions,  and  the  bewildering  mazes  of  spec- 
ulation. Let  our  hearts  rest  here  with  an  assured 
faith.  And  let  that  holy  name  be  not  the  sport  of 
the  profane ;  let  it  be  reverenced  and  loved  and 
blessed,  for  it  was  borne  by  Him  who  freely  gave  up 
all,  even  unto  death,  for  our  sakes,  that  he  might 
reconcile  us  to  God. 


DISCOURSE    XV. 


GROUP  OF  THE  CRUCIFIXION. 

HOW  THERE  STOOD  BY  THE  CROSS  OP  JESUS  UI8  MOTHER,  AND 
HIS  MOTHBR'S  SISTER,  MART  THE  WIFE  OF  CLBOPAS,  AND 
MART   MAGDALEKE. — John  xix.  25. 

Three  Marys  stood  by  the  heavenly  sufferer, 
when  his  disciples  had,  with  the  exception  of  John, 
forsaken  him  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  —  all 
bound  to  him  by  the  strongest  ties  of  kindred,  love, 
and  gratitude.  His  mother,  and  her  sister,  and  she 
whom  he  had  cured  of  a  desperate  insanity. 

The  revelation  to  the  Jews  by  Moses,  and  to  the 
world  by  Christ,  has  one  great  element  of  strength 
and  adaptation  in  its  introduction  of  such  a  variety 
of  human  characters.  No  history  has  so  /nany  well- 
drawn  portraits  of  men  and  women  as  the  Bible. 
The  painters  and  sculptors  have  found  here  their 
best  subjects.  No  dramatic  writer  can  furnish  such 
scenes,  or  revelations  of  both  the  ill  and  good  in  man, 
as  are  witnessed  in  the  history  of  Abraham,  Joseph, 
Saul,  David,  Solomon,  Job,  the  Prophets,  the  Twelve 
Apostles,  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  first  planting  of 


260  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

the  Christian  Church.  The  deep  springs  of  the  heart 
are  laid  bare.  We  see  men  as  they  are,  without  ex- 
aggeration of  either  their  good  or  bad  qualities.  The 
immense  power  which  this  biographical  and  dra- 
matic element  adds  to  the  word,  and  its  great  use 
to  the  reception,  understanding,  and  love  of  the 
truth,  are  shown  by  contrast  in  the  absence  of  these 
qualities  in  the  Veds  of  the  Hindoos,  the  Koran  of 
Mahomet,  and  the  system  of  Confucius.  There,  all 
wears  a  cold  abstract  or  preceptive  form,  and  is  not 
warmed,  colored,  and  made  interesting  and  intelligi- 
ble by  the  play  of  human  character,  and  the  varieties 
and  originalities  of  public  and  private  life.  It  is  a 
silent  witness,  too,  to  the  truth  of  revelation,  for  it 
would  be  a  dangerous  part  for  a  pretender  to  play,  to 
introduce  so  many  characters  upon  the  stage,  if  they 
were  not  real,  and  to  make  them  perform  a  natural 
part  on  all  occasions.  It  would  be  to  multiply  to  an 
incalculable  extent  the  chances  and  means  of  detec- 
tion and  exposure.  Viewed  in  this  light,  how  strik- 
ing is  the  fearlessness  with  which  the  sacred  writers 
have  brought  forward  so  many  narratives,  dialogues, 
families,  persons,  facts,  dates,  places,  and  moved  on 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation  with  such  an  array  of 
distinct  and  original  characters, —  and  all  in  con- 
nection with  the  main  plan,  more  or  less,  of  the  re- 
ligion taught  to  the  world ! 

But  time  forbids  me  to  pursue  this  tempting  path 
of  inquiry  any  further  at  present,  and  I  turn  to  what 
may  be  called  one  section  in  this  long  and  moving 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  261 

panorama  of  human  life,  to  the  Group  of  the  Cru- 
cifixion ;  meaning  by  that,  not  only  those  standing, 
like  the  three  Marys  and  John,  around  the  cross 
itself,  but  also  all  who  were  more  or  less  remotely 
connected  with,  or  involved  in,  this  tremendous  catas- 
trophe. So  much  has  been  made  of  the  physical 
aspects  of  the  scene,  the  agony,  the  blood,  the  dark- 
ening sun,  the  shuddering  earth,  the  opening  graves ; 
and,  by  most  of  the  Christian  world,  of  the  so-called 
vicarious  expiation  by  Jesus's  death  of  the  sins  of 
mankind,  that  the  moral  and  spiritual  traits,  the  be- 
havior of  the  great  sufferer,  his  seven  memorable 
declarations  on  the  cross,  and  the  play  of  character 
in  the  actors  of  the  scene,  have  received  much  less 
attention. 

Of  the  Group  of  the  Crucifixion,  the  dark  form  of 
the  Traitor  first  calls  our  attention  ;  —  Judas,  once 
apostle,  now  apostate  ;  a  name  of  infamy  to  the  end 
of  time ;  called  Iscariot,  probably  from  the  place 
where  he  lived ;  and  carefully  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  Judas,  or  Jude,  who  wrote  the  Epistle.  The  crime 
of  Judas  was  treachery,  marked  among  all  men  as 
one  of  the  blackest  of  sins,  implying  at  once  ingrati- 
tude and  hypocrisy.  But  his  treachery,  like  all 
crimes,  stood  not  alone.  He  had,  we  are  told,  been 
a  thief  before,  and  took  advantage,  as  he  was  the 
treasurer  of  the  little  fraternity,  to  purloin  for  his  own 
selfish  use  the  means  at  once  of  their  livelihood  and 
of  their  charity.  He  coveted  office,  and  he  was  im- 
patient for  the  time  when  Jesus  should  declare  him- 


263  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

self  King  of  the  Jews.  Of  a  mean  soul,  he  could 
not  appreciate  the  beauty  of  a  generous  and  seli- 
forgetting  act  like  that  of  the  breaking  of  the  alabas- 
ter box  of  precious  ointment  by  Mary,  as  a  token  of 
her  uncalculating  reverence  and  love  for  her  Master. 
His  mind  was  intent  upon  other  matters  than  the 
discussion  of  truth.  He  asked  no  sensible  or  dis- 
cerning questions.  It  would  appear  from  what  took 
place  afterwards,  that  he  had  no  personal  hostility  to 
Jesus.  His  sin  was  not  elementally  different  from 
that  of  hundreds  and  thousands  now,  the  overpower- 
ing love  of  money,  office,  and  distinction.  He  could 
sacrifice  his  soul,  and  his  soul's  Saviour,  as  is  done 
daily  in  the  great  world,  for  filthy  lucre.  The  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  were  more  to  him  than  honor,  truth, 
friendship,  discipleship.  He  coolly  made  a  bargain^ 
so  says  the  record,  and  settled  upon  that  ignoble  sum 
as  the  price  of  his  villany.  He  saw  more  worth  in 
that  dull  coin  than  in  all  the  lovely  spirit  and  shin- 
ing beauty  and  grace  of  the  Son  of  God.  How 
small  a  thing  is  a  piece  of  silver  !  yet  when  it  is  held 
closely  to  the  eye,  it  is  big  enough  to  shut  out  heaven 
and  earth  from  the  view,  to  blot  out  God  and  im- 
mortality. He  acted  the  hypocrite.  He  kissed  where 
he  was  ready  to  kill.  Yet  he  may  not  have  had  the 
purpose  of  murder  fully  formed.  For  he  may  nat- 
urally have  supposed  that  the  worker  of  miracles 
would  not  suffer  himself  to  be  taken.  He  had  es- 
caped from  his  enemies  before,  and  he  might  do  the 
same  again.     Judas  may  have  thought  to  force  Jesus 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  263 

to  declare  himself  earlier,  and  no  longer  keep  his  dis- 
ciples in  suspense  about  his  office.  He  had  the  very 
common  fault  of  impatience.  He  wished  to  hurry 
matters  to  a  premature  conclusion,  as  does  many  a 
one  now,  who  chafes  at  the  slow  march  of  Provi- 
dence, and  the  tardy  success  of  a  cause  he  has  much 
at  heart.  That  Judas  had  no  fell  hatred,  no  hot 
passion  or  revenge,  is  demonstrated  by  the  reaction 
of  his  mind,  when  he  awoke  to  the  fearful  conse- 
•quences  of  the  crime,  and  he  saw  Jesus  led  away 
unresisting  in  the  hands  of  his  mortal  enemies.  The 
money,  lately  so  attractive  in  his  eyes,  and  which  he 
counted  and  recounted  with  so  much  greediness,  now 
burnt  his  hands  like  fire.  Nothing  can  exceed  the 
simple  force  of  Matthew's  narrative.  "  Then  Judas, 
which  had  betrayed  him,  when  he  saw  that  he  was 
condemned,  repented  himself,  and  brought  again  the 
thirty  pieces  of  silver  to  the  chief  priests  and  elders, 
saying,  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  the  in- 
nocent blood.  And  they  said.  What  is  that  to  us  ? 
See  thou  to  that.  And  he  cast  down  the  pieces  of 
silver  in  the  temple,  and  departed,  and  went  and 
hanged  himself."  The  act  of  suicide  was  the  recoil 
of  shame,  the  returning  stroke  of  an  avenging  con- 
science. How  fearful  are  the  powers  of  man  when 
wrought  up  to  desperation  !  Judas  performed  three 
acts  towards  a  true  repentance.  He  was  sorry  for 
his  conduct,  and  he  returned  the  money,  and  con- 
fessed his  guilt.  But  he  failed  in  the  hardest  part,  of 
going  on  and  doing  better  next  time.     His  repentance 


264  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

was  remorse,  despair,  a  sorrow  unto  death,  and  he 
added  to  the  crime  of  treachery  a  second  sin  of  self- 
destruction.  This  was  not  true  repentance,  which 
consists  of  four  parts,  —  a  genuine  sorrow  for  sin  as 
sin,  as  done  against  God,  confession,  restitution,  and, 
lastly,  leading  a  better  life. 

The  short  tragedy  of  Judas  is  full  of  mournful  and 
pungent  instruction.  It  shows  how  bitter  a  thing  it 
is  to  do  any  wrong,  and  what  terrific  consequences 
may  flow  from  a  single  act  of  guilt.  It  is  a  touch- 
stone too  to  reveal  the  really  deep  depravity  of  the 
common  vices ;  for  though  they  ordinarily  pass  in 
obscurity,  they  are  black  enough  to  eclipse  the  sun 
in  mid-heaven,  were  the  place  only  Calvary,  the  vic- 
tim Jesus.  The  love  of  money,  intense  and  deter- 
mined, is  as  common  as  water,  and  men  drink  it  for 
their  daily  beverage ;  but  as  Judas  sacrificed  Christ 
from  this  passion,  how  many  are  ready  to  yield  up, 
for  a  like  paltry  price,  truth,  honor,  and  conscience, 
and  the  principles  for  which  Jesus  died  the  death 
of  the  cross?  They  sell  justicfe  and  humanity  for 
thirty,  yea,  for  less  than  thirty,  pieces  of  silver.  They 
will  buy  and  sell  even  the  disciples  of  their  Lord, 
and  make  horrible  merchandise  of  the  souls  and 
bodies  for  which  he  sufTered.  The  frauds  of  busi- 
ness, the  corruptions  of  office,  the  intrigues  for  power 
and  place,  the  low  and  mean  knaveries  of  the  world, 
are  a  sea  without  bottom  and  without  shore.  You 
who  know  the  world  know  this  is  no  vague  and 
groundless  charge.-    Else  why,  to  cite  at  present  no 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  265 

other  proof,  —  why  is  a  good  and  upright  man  hailed 
and  eulogized,  living  and  dead,  as  such  a  rare  prod- 
igy, when  every  one  is  created,  obligated,  destined  to 
be  that  noblest  work  of  God,  an  honest  man,  —  as 
an  Israelite  without  guile, —  as  the  cavalier  without 
fear,  without  reproach,  —  as  a  Son  of  God,  without 
spot  or  blemish  ? 

But  another  character  appears  in  this  world-wit- 
nessed procession,  —  Simon  Peter,  the  denier  of  his 
Master,  the  profane,  the  perjured,  the  penitent,  weep- 
ing bitterly,  but  not  the  suicide.  Had  Judas  found 
tears  as  Peter  did,  perhaps  they  would  have  washed 
his  soul  clean  of  the  foul  purpose  of  piling  sin  upon 
sin.  The  story  of  Peter,  short  and  graphic,  I  need  not 
repeat  to  you,  for  you  are  familiar  with  it.  Bold  in 
promises,  ready  to  die  with  Jesus,  he  is  yet  the  first  to 
deny  him  in  the  crisis  of  danger.  Headlong  to  fight 
for  him,  and  actually  drawing  a  sword  and  striking 
fiercely  in  His  defence,  he  showed  afterwards  how 
much  less  courage  it  sometimes  takes  to  fight  than 
it  does  to  tell  the  truth.  He  could  face  a  tumultuous 
mob  at  dead  of  night  when  his  blood  was  up,  and 
fight  them  at  whatever  odds,  but  in  the  morning  he 
fell  at  a  woman's  question  in  the  hall  of  judgment, 
by  the  first  touch  of  trial. 

Peter's,  too,  is  a  class  of  minds,  and  a  class  of 
sins ;  —  bold,  but  rash  ;  generous,  but  unreliable  ; 
full  of  good  impulses,  but  wavering  as  a  reed,  little 
principle,  steadfastness,  or  consistency. 

The  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed  have 

23 


266 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 


put  him  in  a  focus  of  light,  where  the  whole  world 
have  seen  the  fall  of  Peter.  But  what  did  he  more 
than  men  are  doing  every  day,  who  yet  little  reck 
that  act  for  which  the  Apostle  met  the  condemning 
look  of  the  Lord,  and  for  which  he  went  out  and 
wept  bitterly  ?  Every  falsehood,  every  prevarication, 
every  insincerity,  every  pretence,  artifice,  and  decep- 
tion, —  what  is  it  in  reality  but  to  repeat  in  milder 
or  grosser  form  the  sin  of  Peter?  We  cannot  now 
deny  Jesus  personally,  but  we  may  his  Gospel,  and 
thus  virtually  crucify  him  afresh.  How  often  do  we 
say  in  deeds,  if  not  in  words,  We  know  him  not ! 
We  deny  him,  or  we  do  not  openly  and  frankly  con- 
fess him  before  the  world,  before  those  who,  like 
Pilate,  have  him  on  trial,  to  decide  whether  he  is  the 
Saviour  or  not.  The  traitor's  kiss  must  have  sent  a 
sharp  pang  to  the  heart  of  Jesus,  but  the  denier's 
oath  must  have  been  even  more  cruel ;  that  one  so 
high,  the  first  name  on  the  apostolic  catalogue, 
should  fall  so  Tow!  If  we  confess  not  our  Master 
fearlessly  on  earth,  how  can  we  meet  him  face  to 
face,  and  hope  to  have  him  acknowledge  us  as  his 
own  before  our  Father  who  is  in  heaven  ?  I  know 
you  not,  depart  from  me.  You  were  not  willing  to 
be  with  me  and  mine  in  the  humiliation  of  my  relig- 
ion on  earth,  and  you  have  cut  yourselves  off  from 
its  heavenly  triumph  and  glory. 

The  contrast  is  instructive,  too,  between  the  im- 
petuous Peter  and  the  loving  John.  Peter  had  self- 
confidence,  and  it  failed  him.     John  had  affection, 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  267 

and  it  failed  not.  John  could  face  the  cross,  Peter 
could  not  bear  even  the  preliminary  trial.  Peter 
could  draw  the  sword  and  draw  blood,  but  John 
awaited  the  last  bequest  of  the  crucified,  and  cheered 
his  dying  hour.  How  weak  is  impulse,  how  strong 
an  unselfish  love ! 

But  not  only  Judas  betrayed,  and  Peter  denied ; 
at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  they  all  forsook  him  and 
fled ;  —  striking  and  melancholy  proof  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  best  of  men !  What  a  pathos  in  the 
word  a//,  —  a//,  —  not  a  single  one  left  to  sustain  and 
console !  The  best  of  earth,  the  chosen  of  heaven, 
he  who  did  good  to  all  and  injury  to  none,  who 
loved  and  prayed  for  all,  who  went  about  doing  good, 
curing  diseases,  feeding  the  hungry,  preaching  the 
good  news,  and  who  was  full  of  the  sweetest  and  ho- 
liest affections  to  all  mankind,  and  who,  moreover, 
was  declared  by  his  betrayer,  his  judge,  and  his  exe- 
cutioner to  be  innocent  of  every  crime  alleged  agarinst 
him,  is  deserted  in  his  greatest  need  by  every  one  of 
his  friends.  They  fell  in  an  onset  of  unexpected 
temptation.  They  quarrelled  with  one  another  when 
they  should  have  prayed  to  God.  They  slept  when 
they  should  have  watched.  Their  heavenly  Mas- 
ter is  abandoned  to  his  fate,  while  they  flee  for 
personal  safety.  Here,  again,  we  see  the  faults  of 
to-day  exhibited  upon  a  world-wide  stage,  and  in  the 
illumination  of  the  cross.  For  whenever  we  forsake 
duty  for  self-interest,  and  flee  from  difficulty  and 
danger  to  save  ourselves  at  the  sacrifice  of  truth, 


268  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

we  put  ourselves  in  the  number  of  the  flying 
Twelve. 

Then  there  appears  another  company,  some  friends, 
and  others  enemies,  of  Jesus ;  and  the  individuality  of 
each  person  is  preserved  as  distinctly  by  a  few  words 
of  description  as  if  a  Shakespeare  had  sketched  the 
outlines.  These  are  the  accusers,  judges,  witnesses, 
crucifiers,  and  spectators.  With  a  few  graphic 
strokes  the  Evangelists  have  placed  the  whole  before 
us  in  all  the  colors  and  movements  of  life. 

The  prejudices  of  the  Jews  had  taken  the  alarm  at 
the  success  of  Jesus's  preaching,  and  the  number  of 
his  converts,  and  become  eager  for  blood.  They  de- 
mand the  death  of  their  Messiah,  plot  his  seizure, 
bribe  his  apostate  disciple,  suborn  witnesses,  and 
overawe  the  tribunal  of  justice  with  their  numbers 
and  ferocity.  We  can  see  them,  full  of  rage,  crowd- 
ing about  the  judgment-hall,  and  hear  their  fierce 
yells.  Away  with  him  !  Crucify  him  !  Crucify  him  ! 
Here  is  a  scene  that  gives  us  a  lively  assurance  that 
it  actually  occurred.  This  story  of  the  crucifixion, 
and  all  its  accompaniments,  proclaim  loudly  their 
own  genuineness. 

But  terrible  as  that  manifestation  of  the  passions 
of  the  multitude  is,  the  same  spirit  that  ran  riot  in 
that  mob  has  lived  in  every  age,  and  broken  out 
again  and  again.  It  is  the  history  of  bigotry,  as  old 
as  Cain  and  Abel ;  of  people  who  are  mortally  offend- 
ed that  others  are  better  than  they  are;  of  narrow 
prejudices,  and  heated  passions,  and  intolerant  zeal, 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  2 

and  persecuting  hypocrisy.  It  of  ancient  time  killed 
the  Prophets,  and  stoned  them  that  were  sent  unto 
them.  It  smote  Stephen,  and  beheaded  James.  It 
has  made  religious  persecutions  the  abominations  of 
history,  and  wars  of  faith  the  darkest  theatres  of 
vengeance  and  wrath.  Jesus  was  exposed  without 
shield  to  this  sanguinary  spirit,  which  waited  on  the 
forms  of  law  only  that  it  might  add  cruelty  to  cru- 
elty, and  crucify  where  otherwise  it  could  only  stone 
its  victim. 

There  were  the  high-priests,  Annas  and  Caiaphas, 
before  whom  he  was  successively  arraigned,  who, 
under  the  professed  mask  of  religion,  embodied  the 
essence  of  malignant  passions,  —  holy  men  in  out- 
ward guise,  human  tigers  in  their  thbrst  for  innocent 
blood. 

There  was  Pilate,  the  Roman  governor,  confess- 
ing that  his  prisoner  is  innocent  of  every  charge 
against  him,  yet  too  weak  to  resist  the  popular  fren- 
zy, when,  by  doing  justice,  he  would  endanger  his 
own  office. 

There  was  Herod,  the  ruler  of  Christ's  own  prov- 
ince, Galilee,  who  took  this  opportunity,  hoping 
that  he  should  see  him  perform  some  miracle,  for 
which  he  had  long  had  a  great  curiosity,  and  who 
indulged  the  brutal  passions  of  his  iron-hearted  sol- 
diers by  permitting  them  to  mock  and  insult  their 
helpless  prisoner. 

There  were  the  false  witnesses  who  testified 
against  him,  but  whose  testimony  was  too  barefaced 

23  * 


270  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

and  contradictory  to  be  admitted  even  into  so  un- 
scrupulous a  trial. 

There  were  the  soldiers  of  Rome,  who,  bred  to 
outrage  and  cruelty,  and  swollen  with  the  prtde  of 
boundless  empire,  vied  with  one  another,  and  outdid 
their  superiors,  in  every  offensive  and  insulting  and 
agonizing  infliction  upon  the  holy  sufferer. 

There  was  the  murderer  Barabbas,  the  price  of 
whose  release  was  the  death  of  Jesus.  So  that  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  God  was  twice  valued  during 
these  transactions ;  and  once  the  offset  was  thirty 
pieces  of  silver,  and  once  it  w^as  the  pardon  of  a  no- 
torious criminal ! 

There  were  the  two  robbers  executed  with  him,  his 
right  and  left  hand  escort  through  the  iron  gates  of 
death,  one  a  penitent  and  an  heir  of  paradise,  — one, 
as  has  been  said,  that  none  might  despair  even  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  and  only  one,  that  none  might  pre- 
sume, —  the  other  hardened  and  insulting. 

There  were  the  rough  executioners,  who  drove  the 
nails  and  suspended  the  victim,  who  mocked  his 
agonies  and  pierced  his  side,  and  who  received  his 
mercy  when  they  had  no  mercy  on  themselves ; 
"  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  not  what  they  dow" 
It  was  the  literal  truth,  and  the  sole  excuse ;  they  did 
not  know,  else  they  would  never  have  done  so  foul 
a  deed,  at  which  all  ages  have  shuddered  with  hor- 
ror, as  the  earth  seemed  to  do  at  the  time. 

There  was  the  Roman  centurion,  the  captain  of 
one  hundred  men,  who  superintended  the  execution, 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  271 

watching  carefully  the  whole  scene,  and  into  whose 
soul,  familiar  with  cruelty,  and  hardened  by  battles 
without  number,  there  entered  the  full  assurance  of 
his  innocence  and  his  high  spiritual  dignity.  He 
glorified  God,  saying,  "  Certainly,  this  was  a  right- 
eous man  "  ;  or,  as  another  Gospel  has  it,  "  Truly,  this 
was  the  Son  of  God." 

In  all  these  sorts  of  character,  how  clearly  the 
principles  of  human  nature,  of  custom,  education, 
class,  nation,  the  grades  and  hues  of  moral  life,  stand 
out,  and  in  what  perfect  keeping  and  harmony  are 
they  detailed,  —  without  confusion,  exaggeration,  or 
anger !  No  malice  or  spite  is  expressed  against  one 
of  the  enemies  of  Jesus.  The  degenerate  Christians 
of  a  later  age  persecuted  the  whole  nation  of  the 
Jews,  because  they  belonged  to  the  race  that  crucified 
their  Redeemer ;  but  the  serene  Apostles  and  Evan- 
gelists speak  of  it  as  impersonal  agents,  and  do  not 
judge  even  the  personal  actors,  except  by  the  clear 
narrative  of  their  awful  crime. 

We  see — and  it  is  the  fact  to  which  I  have 
wished  all  along  to  call  your  serious  attention,  as  a 
very  remarkable  one  —  that  here  was  no  unusual 
malignancy  of  sin,  no  desperate  and  unheard-of 
wickedness.  Satan  did  not  then  break  loose  from  his 
chain  in  any  unwonted  license.  Jesus  fell  a  victim 
to  just  such  passions  and  appetites  as  are  rank  and 
fresh  in  all  our  bosoms  to-day,  to  just  such  sins  as 
now  keep  carnival~  in  all  our  cities,  —  prejudice, 
bigotry,  want   of    moral  courage,   love    of   money, 


272  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.        , 

cruel  punishments,  guilty  contempt  of  man,  and 
haughty  insolence  of  office,  and  deadly  hatred  of  the 
light  of  truth  when  it  cuts  across  our  deformities  and 
evil  deeds.  These  and  a  nest  of  kindred  vices  killed 
the  Lord  of  glory  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  in  Je- 
rusalem, the  holy  city,  and  there  is  no  guaranty  that 
the  same  causes,  full  blown  and  powerful,  would  not 
to-day  produce  the  same  result  in  our  city.  These 
Stygian  vices  still  rankle  deep  and  dark  in  the  fair 
bosom  of  the  most  civilized  and  Christian  com- 
munities. The  volcanic  fire  is  still  there,  and,  only 
uncover  the  lid,  it  would  burst  forth  in  fury  and 
destruction.  Mobs,  Lynch-law,  the  bullet,  and  the 
scourge  have  befallen  not  a  few  of  the  zealous 
disciples  of  the  Crucified  One  in  our  own  favored 
day  and  free  country.  There  is  no  evidence  that, 
if  the  Lord  himself  should  appear,  "  trailing  clouds 
of  glory,"  he  would  fare  any  better,  or  would  not, 
instead  of  hosannas  to  the  Son  of  David,  be  greet- 
ed with  the  horrid  yells  of  Crucify  him !  Crucify 
him!  We  cannot  blink  the  sad  reality,  that  he 
who  fearlessly  teaches  the  truth  and  fearlessly  does 
the  right  must  expect,  in  a  crooked  and  perverse 
world,  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  world's  disappro- 
bation and  persecution. 

But  there  is  a  fairer,  brighter  picture  even  to  this 
dark  event.  Let  us  welcome  the  assurance  with 
hope  and  gladness,  that  the  world  is  not  all  bad,  not 
all  solid  wickedness ;  that  stars,  serene  and  pure, 
shine   even   in   this   blackest   midnight   of    history. 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION.  273 

Such  superhuman  goodness  as  that  of  Jesus  could 
not  by  any  possibility  be  wholly  destitute  of  friends 
in  that  hour  of  shame  and  agony. 

There  was  Simon  the  Cyrenean,  who  bore  the 
cross  by  compulsion ;  but  who  afterwards  became  a 
believer,  if  he  was  not  one  then. 

There  was  a  group  of  the  daughters  of  Zion,  with 
a  great  company  of  people,  who  followed  him  with 
tears  and  lamentation,  and  watched  him  afar  off. 

There  were  friends,  and  among  them  women,  that 
had  followed  him  from  Galilee,  and  ministered  unto 
him, — 

"  Last  at  his  cross,  and  earliest  at  his  grave,"  — 
who  dared  to  mingle  in  the  brutal  throng  at  the  foot 
of  the  cross,  to  cheer  him  by  their  presence  and  sym- 
pathy, gather  up  in  loving  memories  his  last  precious 
words,  and  fulfil  his  parting  instructions. 

His  mother  was  there,  with  wonderful  heroism  and 
affection,  the  prophetic  sword  piercing  through  her 
heart.  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  seems  to  have 
been  the  only  one  of  the  Twelve  present.  How  sim- 
ple and  how  beyond  all  fabrication  that  scene  at 
the  last,  —  "  Mother,  behold  thy  son  !  Son,  behold 
thy  mother ! "  Such  was  the  deep  humanity  of 
Jesus,  his  perfect  truth  to  all  relations  of  earth  and 
heaven. 

And  then,  too,  there  were  those  other  less  coura- 
geous friends,  men  of  office,  property,  and  standing, 
who  were  round  to  bestow  those  honors  on  the  dead 
which  they  were  too  indifferent  or  timid  to  grant  to 


274 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 


the  living,  a  form  of  character  not  unknown  at  the 
present  day.  They  took  care  that  he  whose  word, 
while  he  was  alive,  had  powerfully  moved  them,  but 
whom  they  did  not  venture,  for  fear  of  the  Jews, 
openly  to  follow,  should  be  honorably  buried. 

The  relaxed  body,  still  bearing  the  marks  of  the 
death-agony,  but  gathering  up  in  the  face,  we  may 
suppose,  which  is  the  index  and  mirror  of  the  soul, 
radiant  tokens  of  faith  and  love,  such  as  the  world 
had  never  seen  before,  was  lowered  from  the  bloody 
cross,  and  laid  reverently  away,  by  friendly  hands, 
in  the  new  stone  tomb  of  Joseph.  None  had  lain 
there  before,  and  so  there  was  none  to  confound 
with  Jesus,  and  lose  the  identity  of  his  resurrection. 
It  was  stone,  cut  in  the  living  rock,  and  there  could 
be  but  one  entrance.  It  was  sealed  and  w^atched, 
and  no  body-snatcher  could  steal  it,  no  deceiver  ex- 
change it  for  another,  or  for  a  living  person. 

All  is  now  over.  This  ripple  in  life's  waters  has 
subsided,  and  the  prospect  is  that  the  vast  stream 
will  flow  on  as  before.  Another  fanatic  has  added 
his  name  to  the  list  of  failures,  and  sunk  to  rise  no 
more. 

True,  alarming  portents  are  abroad.  This  dark- 
ened sun  can  be  no  eclipse,  for  it  is  not  the  right 
time  of  the  moon.  Earth  quakes,  the  dead  rise. 
The  vast  throng,  that  are  always  attracted  with  a 
strange  and  horrible  fascination  to  such  scenes  as  ex- 
ecutions, now  return  home,^  smiting  their  breasts 
with  mingled  passions  of  terror  and  grief  and  indig- 
nation.    They  who  went  to  scoff  remained  to  pray. 


GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 


275 


Where  but  in  such  scenes  should  we  have  seen,  not 
only  the  deep  places  of  human  nature  laid  open,  but 
all  the  strength  and  tenderness  of  Jesus  exhibited, 
his  forgiving,  mild,  humble,  but  firm,  true,  and  ex- 
alted spirit.  There  was  agony,  terrible  agony ;  for 
crucifixion  is  ingeniously  contrived  to  be  the  most 
cruel  and  lingering  of  deaths,  striking  the  nervous 
system  at  a  distance  in  its  tenderest  parts,  the  hands 
and  feet,  and  leaving  the  great  vital  organs  to  work 
on  in  torture,  until  the  victim  dies  of  mere  excess  of 
pain.  God,  in  that  fearful  suffering,  did  seem  for  a 
moment  to  have  deserted  him,  and  his  loud,  strong 
cry  broke  forth,  —  and  it  stands  recorded  as  an  ever- 
lasting testimony  to  the  unflinching  truth  of  the 
writers  to  record  all  that  was  important,  whether  it 
told  for,  or  seemingly,  not  really,  against,  their  Master, 
—  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me ! " 
But  the  soul  resumed  her  control,  and  he  resigned  all 
into  the  hands  of  the  Father:  — "  It  is  finished  !" 

The  Cross  sums  up,  my  brethren,  the  substance  of 
Christianity ;  not  in  the  cold  and  literal  sense  of  a 
sacrifice,  but  in  a  spiritual  sense  and  a  moral  and 
immortal  power.  God  teaches  us  not  to  exact  an 
eye  for  an  eye,  apd  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  he  does 
not  do  himself  what  he  forbids  us.  The  cross  is  the 
bright  revelation  of  God's  care  and  interest  in  man, 
his  love  for  the  sinner,  and  his  purpose  to  redeem  him 
by  like  acting  on  like,  spiritual  life  calling  forth  spir- 
itual life.  It  is  the  glorious  beaming  forth  of  Jesus's 
love.     The  cross  from  an  accursed  tree  has  become 


276  GROUP    OF    THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

SO  glorified,  that  we  now  hail  it  as  the  pillar  of  our 
faith,  the  chief  capital,  rich  and  solemn,  that  stands 
in  the  architecture  of  the  heavenly  temple.  It  is  the 
one  token  of  the  Gospel,  highest  and  holiest,  and  it 
may  well  point  to  heaven  from  every  grave  and  every 
church,  too  large,  too  significant,  too  heaven  and 
earth  wide  to  be  the  exclusive  possession  of  any  one 
sect  or  church. 

The  Cross  has  a  most  vital  and  awakening  mean- 
ing for  us.  It  shows  us  on  a  majestic  scale,  so  high 
and  broad  that  the  whole  earth  can  see  it,  that,  if  we 
teach  and  live  the  truth  ever  so  faithfully,  we  shall 
suffer  for  it.  The  disciple  is  not  above  his  master. 
The  nature  of  man  is  the  same,  though  manners  and 
customs  change.  None  can  accuse  Christ  of  impru- 
dence, of  ultraism  or  fanaticism  of  any  kind,  or  of 
zeal  not  according  to  knowledge.  He  moved  simply 
forward  in  the  path  of  duty,  and  at  the  end  of  that 
path  stood  the  grim  and  horrible  cross.  Let  us  not, 
then,  be  discouraged,  either  in  faith  or  philanthropy, 
even  in  the  opposition  of  the  world.  But  by  the 
sublime  and  holy  death  of  Jesus  may  we  be  filled 
with  a  moral  courage  that  shall  never  falter,  and  a 
superiority  to  all  fears  but  the  fear  of  doing  wrong 
and  displeasing  our  Heavenly  Father. 


DISCOUESE    XVI 


SELF-CREATION. 

FOR    WE     ABE    LABORERS    TOGETHER   WITH    GOD:     YE    ARE    GOd'S 
HUSBANDBT,  TB  ARE  OOD's  BUILDING.—  1  Corinthians  iii.  9. 

It  is  the  sublime  thought  of  Paul,  that  we  may  be 
co-workers  with  God.  The  Creator  does  a  part,  and 
the  chief  part,  but  he  kindly  gives  us  a  part,  as  con- 
siderate parents  let  their  children  join  them  in  their 
works,  though  they  could  often  do  what  is  assigned 
to  unpractised  hands  better  themselves.  Creation  is 
not  finished,  nor  ever  will  be,  but  is  always  proceed- 
ing. In  this  progressive  system,  man  can  put  in  his 
hand,  and  make  or  mar,  as  his  intelligence  and  prin- 
ciple, or  his  sinfulness  and  ignorance,  may  decide. 
He  is  placed  in  the  midst  of  an  infinitude  of  materi- 
als. The  dwelling-place  into  which  he  is  born  has 
its  frame  and  furniture  prepared  to  his  hand,  but  the 
finishing  is  assigned  to  him.  Nature  is  a  wilderness ; 
he  is  to  make  it  a  garden. 

If  we  look  at  the  material  creation,  we  see  many 
illustrations  of  this  truth.  The  elements  are  in  a 
rude  state.     The  rivers  run  waste  to  the  sea ;  the 

24 


278  SELF-CREATION. 

ocean  rolls  a  vast  desert  of  waters  round  the  world ; 
the  forests  grow  and  decay,  and  furnish  nourishment 
for  new  generations  of  the  same  species  ;  the  fire  is 
a  hidden  force,  and  the  lightning  plays  apparently  at 
haphazard  among  the  clouds.  But  God  has  dele- 
gated to  man,  as  his  vicegerent  on  the  earth,  the 
power  and  skill,  within  certain  humble  limits,  of 
using  these  unwieldy  and  fearful  agencies,  and  carry- 
ing out  the  plan  of  their  creation.  He  navigates  the 
ocean,  builds  mills  and  boats  on  the  rivers,  uses  the  fire 
for  his  comfort,  and  sends  his  messages  by  the  light- 
ning. Here  is  the  office  of  man  as  a  co-worker  with 
the  Deity.  He  is  bound  as  by  a  solemn  duty  to  be 
a  fellow-laborer  with  God.  The  creation,  humanly 
speaking,  may  be  said  not  to  be  complete  till  he  has 
put  his  hand  to  it,  the  hand  of  use  and  appropria- 
tion. 

So  with  the  animals.  They  are  created  in  kind  ; 
but  the  type  maybe  improved.  Man  can  mix, cross, 
and  perfect  their  breeds.  He  can  tame  the  wild, 
multiply  indefinitely  their  number,  and,  by  better 
shelter,  food,  care,  and  surgery,  develop  new  excel- 
lences in  the  horse,  sheep,  cow,  dog,  goat.  He  re- 
creates the  animal  world,  that  comes  within  his 
power.  This  ought  not  to  make  him  proud,  but 
humble  ;  kind,  not  cruel ;  as  God  has  placed  him  over 
the  beasts  of  the  field,  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  the 
fowls  of  the  air,  to  carry  out  his  plans.  He  ought 
to  act  worthy  of  a  God,  where  godlike  duties  are  as- 
signed him,  and,  by  his  superior  intelligence,  care,  and 


SELF-CREATION,  279 

/ 

kindness  to  animals,  to  show  his  appreciation  and 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  trusts  reposed  in  him. 

The  flowers,  fruits,  and  vegetables  all  require  to 
be  improved  by  human  skill  and  ingenuity.  The 
apple  was  left  a  crab,  when  created,  that  man  might 
do  a  part,  and  have  the  motive  and  satisfaction  of 
doing  and  planning  a  work  of  his  own,  in  perfecting 
the  fruit.  He  is  to  soften  the  flavor  of  the  fruits  by 
culture,  and  increase  their  size  and  number.  He  is 
to  make  the  flowers  double  that  were  single,  vary 
their  colors,  and  add  to  their  perfumes.  He  is  to 
change  the  desert  into  a  fruitful  field,  and  multiply 
indefinitely  the  useful  and  the  beautiful  in  the  whole 
vegetable  kingdom.  The  Eden  that  was  lost  is  "  to 
be  restored,  and  more  than  restored.  Compare  the 
dinner  of  a  savage  under  his  native  palm  with  a  Hor- 
ticultural Exhibition,  and  we  see  the  endless  room 
for  man  to  work  in,  and  the  effects  of  his  science 
and  experiments. 

The  same  remarks  are  applicable  everywhere. 
The  forests  were  given  to  his  hands  uncut,  the  ores 
buried  in  the  earth  undug  and  un worked,  the  pearls 
in  the  sea,  the  fire  in  the  flint,  the  steam  in  the 
water,  the  temple  and  the  palace  in  the  quarry. 
How  wonderful  is  the  creation  of  a  city !  Lately, 
these  bricks  were  lying  in  the  formless  clay,  these 
boards  and  rafters  in  the  heart  of  the  wild  forest, 
and  the''stone  in  the  ledge;  but  timber,  ores,  quarries, 
sand,  grass,  rags,  ochres,  are  converted  into  paint, 
paper,  matting,  house,  furniture,  books.      What   a 


280  SELF-CREATION. 

magical  transformation,  and  how  unceasingly  we 
should  wonder  over  it,  but  that  it  is  repeated  every  day 
before  our  eyes.  Forests,  rocks,  and  streams,  moving 
in  obedience  to  the  fabled  lyre  of  Orpheus,  are  not 
more  wonderful  than  man's  modern  pastime  with 
the  objects  and  elements  of  nature.  Slowly  for 
many  centuries  the  race  have  been  travelling  up  to 
these  things,  and,  now  they  have  attained  them,  they 
still  keep  their  way  onward. 

The  arts,  useful  and  beautiful,  are  thus  a  species 
of  creation.  Man  was  sent,  not  to  -destroy,  but  to 
fulfil.  And  it  is  much  better  for  him  every  way, 
that  he  has  all  this  contriving  and  work  to  do,  than 
that  his  houses  had  been  built,  his  ships  launched 
and  rigged,  his  telescopes  hung,  and  his  clothing 
spun,  woven,  and  made  to  his  order.  The  virtue  of 
it  is  in  the  doing,  more  than  in  the  thing  done  ;  in 
the  exercise  of  his  faculties,  discipline,  growth,  capa- 
city, self-reliance.  For  these  kingly  results  any 
means  are  richly  spent.  Life,  which  would  other- 
wise be  tasteless  and  aimless,  is  made  various,  use- 
ful, necessary,  and  interesting.  Man  has  to  work,  or 
not  eat.  He  has  the  pleasure,  too,  of  calling  some 
things  his  own,  and  saying.  See  what  I  have  done  ! 
He,  too,  can  bear  part  in  the  benediction  of  the  all- 
wise  Creator,  when  he  pronounced  his  works  very 
good. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  learn  distinctly  and  impres- 
sively this  duty  of  man  to  be  a  co-worker  with  God. 
Some  nations  have  not  learned  it  yet ;  the  greater 


SELF-CREATION.  281 

part  of  the  human  family  are  still  children,  have  not 
yet  seen  that,  as  God  has  done  a  part  for  them,  he 
has  left  his  tools  for  them  to  work  on  and  finish  the 
great  enterprise.  The  savage  tribes  still  linger  on 
the  animal  plane,  fishing,  hunting,  eating,  sleeping, 
warring,  as  if  they  were  only  a  better  kind  of  beavers, 
kangaroos,  and  lions.  The  landscape  is  but  little 
altered,  even,  in  the  barbarous  nations  ;  the  woods  and 
hills  stand  in  the  rough  majesty  of  nature.  Only  in 
civilized  lands  do  cities  and  temples  shine  in  the 
horizon  of  the  traveller,  and  masts  fill  the  harbors 
like  a  forest. 

But  even  the  civilized  and  Christian  nations  do 
not  yet  fully  comprehend  that  a  new  moral  and 
spiritual,  as  well  as  material,  creation  is  to  be  called 
forth  by  man.  We  want  Fultons  and  Franklins  in 
the  school,  the  home,  and  the  church,  as  well  as  in 
the  shop  and  field  and  ship,  to  teach  us  the  doctrine 
and  practice  of  use  in  the  higher  walks  of  thought, 
action,  knowledge,  and  character.  Civilization,  the 
conquest  of  matter,  is  not  enough  ;  Christianity,  the 
new  spiritual  creation,  is  to  be  superadded.  Man 
has  not  done  his  work  when  he  has  made  a  ship, 
and  built  a  house,  and  woven  a  suit  of  garments. 
He  can  co-work  with  God  in  the  building  of  his 
body  and  his  mind,  —  a  divine  carpentry. 

Physical  education  is  a  part  of  this  sub-creation. 
The  body  is  to  be  unfolded,  invigorated,  and  kept  as 
a  pure  temple  for  the  soul,  with  nothing  to  do  it 
sacrilege.   Every  person  arrived  at  man's  estate  is  an 

24- 


282  SELF-CREATION. 

investment  of  a  considerable  amount  of  capital  for 
the  good  of  society.  Many  things  have  entered  into 
his  composition,  —  bread  from  the  wheat-fields,  fish 
from  the  seas,  ice  from  the  North,  oranges  from  the 
tropics.  How  unspeakably  important  for  health, 
ease,  action,  availability,  and  the  carrying  out  of  the 
divine  idea  in  the  human  body,  that  the  laws  of 
health,  growth,  activity,  beauty,  should  be  followed, 
and  the  germ  God  gave  be  cultivated  by  man  to  a 
full-formed  humanity! 

As  civilization  is  the  completion  of  the  physical, 
Christianity  is  that  of  the  spiritual  man.  Guided 
by  its  rules,  and  animated  by  its  spirit,  he  is  to 
carry  out  the  creative  plan,  to  be  a  co-worker  with 
God  on  himself,  build  his  character  up,  and  make  it 
strong  with  virtue  and  beautiful  with  love.  The 
Creator  necessitates  no  holiness.  Even  Jesus  learned 
obedience.  Men  may  be  innocent  in  childhood,  but 
they  cannot  be  virtuous  in  life  without  self-exertion 
and  self-formation.  The  materials  of  this  higher 
architecture  are  given  in  abundance.  There  is  rea- 
son for  the  truth,  the  understanding  for  practical 
affairs,  conscience  for  the  right,  love  for  the  good, 
hope  for  progress  ;  so  that  our  own  nature  is  a  forest, 
quarry,  and  mine,  containing  all  the  needful  means 
for  our  great  work.  But  beside  these  native  facul- 
ties, society  and  Christianity  give  us  the  tools  to 
work  with,  the  motives,  books,  teachers,  to  aid  us  in 
the  sub-creation.  We  are  called  to  be  laborers  with 
God,  in  no  meagre  plan  and  for  no  trivial  results. 
The  plan  is  divine,  and  the  results  are  eternal. 


SELF-CREATION.  283 

Man  is  therefore  placed  here  to  create  all  things 
new,  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness.  He  is  thrown  naked  on  the 
earth,  like  the  giant  of  fable,  that  he  may  wrestle 
with  its  rude  elements,  grow  up,  grow  strong  in  its 
varied  and  searching  probation  and  discipline,  and 
snatch  grace,  love,  wisdom,  and  beauty  from  its  pass- 
ing scenes  and  ever-fluctuating  fortunes.  After  the 
hardest  part  of  the  work  had  been  done  for  him, 
and  the  materials,  instruments,  motives,  and  directions 
given,  he  is  left  to  stand  as  it  were  in  the  place  of  the 
Creator,  and  fulfil  his  design.  And  a  serious  and  cu- 
rious inquiry  sometimes  arises  in  the  mind.  Are  we 
working  in  all  things,  art,  science,  society,  religion,  as 
the  Divine  Being  would,  were  God  man,  and  He  oc- 
cupied our  position  ?  Are  our  lives  Godlike  ?  But 
in  Christ  this  question  is  settled.  We  know  his  life 
was  pleasing  to  God,  and  we  know  what  made  it  so, 
namely,  obedience  to  all  the  laws  of  God.  He  came 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  We  must  suppose,  too, 
that  the  most  perfect  in  every  kind  of  enterprise  is 
the  Divine  method  and  plan,  and  well  approved  by 
him,  and  therefore  to  be  sought  by  man.  Howard, 
we  may  believe,  pleases  him  well  in  benevolence, 
Fulton  in  mechanics,  Thorwaldsen  in  art,  Leighton 
in  piety.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  be  quite 
as  sure  that  other  things  are  not  God's  idea  and 
intention  of  a  world  and  human  society,  but 
thwart  his  creation-plan.  The  jail,  we  may  safely 
say,  cannot  meet  his  approbation,   where  numbers 


284  SELF-CREATION. 

sleep   in  the  same  fetid  atmosphere  at  night,  and 
mix  their  physical  and  moral  impurities  together, 
each  making   all,  and  all  making  each,  worse  and 
worse  by  the  unholy  contact.     The  hospital  cannot 
please   him,  where,   in   crowded  wards,  and  dusty, 
stifling  yards,  the  poor  maniacs  mope  or  scream  away 
their  existence.     The  city  cannot  be  the  city  of  God, 
where  bar-rooms  stand  at  every  corner,  and  entice 
the  young,  the  desponding,  and  the  weak  to  strength- 
en the  chains  of  a  desperate  intemperance,  —  can- 
not be  such  an  abode  as  the  master  hand  and  heart 
would  have  contrived  for  myriads  of  beings.     Yet 
this  jail,  hospital,  and  city  are  our  own  ;  and  we 
should  nevertheless  be  provoked  if  a  foreigner  should 
say  we  were  not  a  Christian,  but   a  heathen  city. 
So  much  more  sensitive  than  conscientious  are  the 
multitude  of  men.     God  has  made  a  beautiful  island 
in  the  south,  and  bathed  it  with  sparkling  seas,  and 
fanned  it  with  pure  gales,  and  clothed  it  with  never- 
dying  verdure.     That  is  his  idea,  plan  of  an  island. 
But  when  man  transports    between   nine   and   ten 
thousand  wretched  human  victims  from  their  homes 
on  a  distant  continent  to  this  fairy  scene,  to  toil, 
swelter,  pine,  and  die  on  the  plantations,  as  has  been 
done  during  the  last  six  months  on  the  island  of 
Cuba,  we  may  be  sure  that  that  entered  into  no  part 
of  the  Divine  ordination.     That  is  man's  work,  not 
God's.     The  fathers  of  our  Revolution,  in  their  con- 
ception and  execution  of   the  sublime  principle  of 
Liberty,  furthered,  we  may  say,  without  hazard,  a 


SELF-CREATION.  285 

godlike  thought ;  but  when  some  of  their  descend- 
ants left  that  idea,  and  took  up  a  crusade  to  per- 
petuate and  extend  human  slavery,  and  to  declare 
it  eternal  on  any  part  of  the  soil  of  the  republic,  and 
enacted  unrighteous  and  cruel  fugitive  laws  to 
strengthen  the  institution,  we  may  be  equally  sure 
that  they  left  the  Divine  order  of  things,  and  took  the 
responsibility  of  following  their  own.  Man  seems 
to  be  endowed  with  an  animal  impulse  to  defend 
his  own  life," wherever  and  whenever  attacked,  or  by 
whatever  cause.  But  when  he  joins  intelligence  to 
impulse,  fabricates  deadly  weapons,  accumulates 
magazines  and  arsenals,  stores  ships  and  forts  with 
powder  and  ball,  and  squanders  untold  revenues  of 
nations,  and  mortgages  the  wages  and  incomes  of 
future  generations,  not  to  defend  his  life,  but  to  grat- 
ify an  unholy  ambition  and  seek  revenge  over  his 
enemies,  we  pronounce  without  hesitation  the  system 
of  modern  warfare  contrary  to  nature  and  God,  as 
well  as  the  precepts  of  Jesus.  These  are  some  of 
the  more  glaring  and  notorious  violations  of  the  Di- 
vine purposes,  but  life  is  full  of  smaller  ones.  It  is  a, 
'great  part  of  our  duty  while  on  the  earth  to  weed 
out  of  the  garden  of  the  Lord  the  briers  and  brambles 
that  overgrow  his  flowers  and  fruits. 

We  have  seen  in  these  illustrations  how  man 
may  execute  or  mar  the  stupendous  designs  of  the 
Creator.  He  may  be  a  faithful,  or  a  slothful  and 
wicked  servant.  Such  is  his  option,  and  many 
choose   the   evil,  not  the  good.     We  have   looked 


286  SELF-CREATION. 

chiefly  at  the  external  world,  and  at  the  eyils  of  so- 
ciety ;  if  we  come  nearer  home,  and  scrutinize  our 
own  hearts,  we  see  here  a  vast  field  for  self-creation, 
self-formation,  growth,  development,  repentance,  ref- 
ormation, self-culture,  —  one,  too,  over  which  we  have 
even  more  power  than  over  the  elements  or  over 
society.  This  is  our  private  freehold.  The  problem 
runs  somewhat  in  this  wise :  Given,  passion,  en- 
ergy ;  required,  a  spirited  character  and  an  active  life. 
Given,  a  soft  infant ;  required,  a  sturdy,  well-formed, 
intelligent,  and  virtuous  man.  Given,  conscience  ; 
required,  righteousness.  Given,  affections  ;  required, 
love  to  all  in  heaven  and  earth.  Given,  the  wood 
and  water,  sun  and  shower,  seed  and  soil ;  required, 
the  garden,  the  orchard,  the  farm.  Given,  iron,  fire, 
wood ;  required,  the  railroad,  steam-ship,  and  tele- 
graph. Given,  savage  Albion  and  the  wildernesses 
of  North  America ;  required,  the  British  Museum,  the 
Crystal  Palace,  and  New  York  and  Washington. 
But  these  lower  fabrics,  on  which  the  age  so  much 
prides  itself,  are  but  types  of  the  higher  and  lasting 
creations  of  soul.  We  complain  of  droughts,  we  are 
worried  and  we  are  rejoiced  at  little  things  ;  and  yet 
none  of  these  trivial  causes  would  move  us,  if  we 
saw  distinctly,  as  we  might  see,  that  we  could  win 
a  patient  endurance  from  the  drought,  a  calm,  soul- 
centred  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God  from  every 
daily  cross  and  burden,  that  would  last  when  the 
earth  itself  was  no  more.  The  plan  of  God  in  all 
his  lower  creations  is  the  higher  one  of  soul,  char- 


SELF-CREATION.  287 

acter,  divine  growth,  and  assimilation.  Hence,  the 
modern  problem  reads  in  large  capitals,  which  none 
can  mistake :  Given,  instinct,  reason,  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  ;  required,  a  new  human  race,  a  new  moral  and 
spiritual  creation.  From  this  generation,  on  whom 
the  wisdom  of  ages  has  been  distilled,  and  on  whom 
the  fulness  of  time  has  come,  are  required  good  men 
and  women, —  the  patriot,  the  teacher,  the  mother,  the 
minister,  the  orator,  the  philosopher,  and,  all  in  one, 
the  Christian  man  in  every  walk  of  life, —  Sainton 
earth,  angel  in  heaven.  Thus  all  should  begin  and 
end  in  the  spiritual  centre.  He  has  no  string  to 
thread  the  scattered  pearls  of  his  life,  who  does  not 
see  a  divine  purpose  running  through  it,  and  tying 
all  together,  the  least  and  the  greatest  The  wild 
beasts  have  spiritual  correspondences  and  uses. 
The  lion  roars  not  in  vain.  Loathsome  reptiles  and 
insects  come  in  our  way  to  teach  us  lessons  we  can- 
not spare,  and  to  give  touches  and  shapings  to  the 
moulding  of  eternal  characters.  The  end  and  em- 
phasis of  all  things  is  formation  of  ourselves  on  God's 
idea  of  a  human  being.  When  we  can  come  near 
that,  we  are  wise,  strong,  and  good.  All  other  duties 
are  done,  and  the  whole  world  drained  of  its  good 
into  our  souls,  when  we  achieve  that  glory.  The 
coarsest  strands  work  into  this  fine  web.  Grass  and 
trees  link  themselves  at  last,  fugitive  as  they  are,  to 
the  eternal.  And  when  the  joys  and  pains  of  this 
state  go  out,  it  is  because  they  have  led  us  to  some- 
thing higher,  which  has  come  in.     When  that  which 


288  SELF-CREATION. 

is  perfect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  is  done 
away.  The  lamps  expire,  because  the  sun  has 
come.  If  flowers  bloom  for  us,  it  is  that  they  may 
exhale  our  souls  like  their  own  fragrance  to  heaven* 
If  birds  sing,  it  is  to  weave  a  note  for  us  into  the 
music  of  paradise.  Fruits  grow  yellow  and  ripen 
for  a  celestial  banquet.  The  moral  and  spiritual  cre- 
ation and  character  we  bear  with  us  would  be  found 
to  be  curiously  compounded,  could  we  analyze  it,  — 
a  few  tears  of  childhood,  a  mother's  kiss,  a  father's 
hand  laid  on  the  head,  a  lover's  tender  word,  a  les- 
son, a  book,  a  friend,  greetings  and  farewells,  a  bitter 
sorrow,  a  bright  pleasure,  love,  and  hope,  and  de- 
spair, and  possession.  So  has  the  character  been 
tinged  or  dyed  in  all  the  soils  the  river  of  our  life  has 
run  through.  The  uses  of  this  fair  and  varied  crea- 
tion, of  this  rude  and  gusty  world,  of  this  dark  and 
sinful  humanity,  of  this  solemn  and  wonderful  his- 
tory, reaching  to  distant  ages  and  lands  of  memory, 
the  darkening  past  and  the  brightening  future  of  hope, 
—  the  part  they  all  take  in  our  self-formation,  —  are 
but  faintly  known  and  felt  as  yet,  but  they  have  a  per- 
petual creative  power  on  the  soul.  And  especially  is 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  as  yet  but  in  its  infancy  in  this 
respect.  It  has  done  little  compared  with  what  it 
is  to  do.  It  has  only  begun  its  work  in  the  soul 
and  among  the  nations.  It  is  slowly  becoming  a 
power  in  the  earth.  But  all  these  causes,  and  this, 
chief  of  all,  will  enkindle  energies  that  are  to  act  and 
gi'ow,  and  cultivate  a  happiness  that  wiH  flow  on 


SELF-CREATION.  289 

like  a  mighty  river,  deeper,  broader,  and  serener   for 
ever. 

But,  my  brethren,  let  us  not  forget  the  lesson  and 
application.  This  creation  is  a  self-creation,  this 
formation  is  a  se//'-formation.  We,  like  the  rest  of 
God^s  works,  were  left  undeveloped,  thafc  ive  might 
go  on  and  carry  out  his  creation.  He  would  give 
us  the  satisfaction  of  being  partly  self-made,  partly 
our  own,  as  well  as  all  his.  He  gives  us  means,  ma- 
terials, motives,  guidance,  and,  to  let  nothing  escape 
us  that  would  be  of  help,  he  has  presented  the  ex- 
quisite figure  and  spirit  of  a  divine  man,  a  being 
who  lived  as  God  would,  were  he,  with  his  present 
intelligence  and  power,  to  dwell  as  we  do  on  this 
globe.  By  all  the  hopes  and  all  the  fears,  then,  you 
are  capable  of,  do  not  neglect  this  creative,  self-form- 
ing work.  You  are  to  build  more  than  houses,  even 
character ;  till  more  than  fields,  souls ;  ye  are  God's 
building,  God's  husbandry.  You  are  to  be  co- 
workers with  God  and  Christ  in  this  glorious  work. 
The  great  difficulty  is  in  keeping  up  your  faith  and 
zeal,  —  to  carry  all  the  hope  and  enthusiasm  of  your 
youth  into  this  business  of  your  manhood.  The 
danger  is  in  turning  off  on  some  by-path  of  your 
own,  instead  of  following  the  way  God  has  marked 
out,  —  in  fulfilling  some  little,  worthless,  and  short- 
lived plan  of  your  passions  or  pleasures,  and  not 
conceiving  and  executing  that  diviner  and  more  dis- 
tant, but  ever-growing  and  heaven-filling  law  of  God. 
Saturn,  as  we  see  it,  is  but  a  point  in  the  sky ;  but  if 

25 


290  SELF-CREATION. 

we  should  approach  it,  its  majestic  orb  would  be  the 
only  thing  seen  at  last.  A  good  life,  a  Christian 
character,  seem  faint  and  cold  as  the  stars  to  the 
worldly  man  immersed  in  present  good,  and  only 
asking  that  he  may  grow  rich  and  live  at  ease ;  but 
the  more  it  is  approached  and  gained,  the  more  it 
fills  all  things  with  its  light  and  beauty,  and  from  a 
star  grows  to  be  the  sun  of  all.  Let  us  keep  on  the 
line  of  God's  creation,  and  all  will  be  right  in  the 
end  ;  the  crooked  arc  of  Time  will  then  be  found  to 
be  a  part  of  the  majestic  circle  of  Eternity.  If  we 
follow  Christ,  we  cannot  fail  to  arrive  at  God. 


DISCOURSE    XVII 


UNION  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE/ 

KKOW  TB  NOT  THAT  TB  ARE  THB  TEMPLE  OP  GOD,  AND  THAT 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD  DWELLETH  IN  TOU  ?  IF  ANY  MAN  DEFILE 
THB  TEMPLE  OP  GOD,  HIM  SHALL  GOD  DESTROY  ;  FOR  THE  TEM- 
PLE    OP     GOD     IS     HOLY,    WHICH     TEMPLE     YE    ARE.  —  1     Corin- 

thians  iii.  16,  17. 

The  dedication  of  a  new  temple  to  the  worship  of 
the  One  Living  and  True  God,  our  Father  in  heav- 
en, to  the  faith  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
and  to  the  coming  of  his  kingdom  among  men,  calls 
this  day  for  gratitude  and  praise.  We  welcome  it. 
Christian  brethren,  as  a  fresh  token  of  the  power  of 
the  Gospel,  as  another  link  in  its  bright  chain  of  evi- 
dences, as  another  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  its 
perpetual  and  universal  dominion.  For  human  na- 
ture is  ever  the  same ;  and  the  causes  that  have  mould- 
ed in  beauty  and  majesty  the  materials  of  this  splen- 
did edifice  shall  not  cease  operating  until  they  have 
filled  the  whole  earth  with  Christian  churches.  Every 

♦  A  Discourse  preached  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Church  of  the  Mes- 
siah, St  Louis,  Missouri,  December  8,  1851. 


292 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 


enterprise  of  this  kind  is,  therefore,  not  only  interest- 
ing to  the  immediate  congregation,  but  it  strikes  a 
chord  of  fraternal  sympathy  among  all  receivers  of 
the  like  precious  faith.  Hence  we  come,  pastors  and 
delegates,  from  other  and  distant  churches,  agreeably 
to  your  invitation,  to  join  with  our  brethren  of  this 
city  in  the  glad  services  of  consecration.  Know, 
then,  that  your  joy  is  our  joy,  as  your  hope  is  our 
hope. 

This  house  is  now  dedicated  by  public  prayer,  as 
it  has  already  been  devoted  in  your  hearts,  to  the  ser- 
vice of  God  and  C^hrist.  We  pass,  accordingly,  by 
a  ready  association  of  ideas,  to  the  holy  uses  for 
which  it  is  builded,  the  growth  of  the  divine  life  in 
your  souls,  and  its  manifestation  in  your  conduct 
and  character.  Without  these  results,  the  temple  • 
and  its  solemnities,  however  imposing  to  the  out- 
ward eye  and  ear,  are  but  a  hollow  mockery  before 
the  heart-searching  God.  Far  better  that  its  foun- 
dations had  slept  in  their  native  quarry,  and  its 
beams  and  rafters  still  adorned  the  wild  forest,  than 
that  they  should  be  drawn  from  their  solitude  and 
erected  into  this  glorious  fabric,  only  to  publish  to 
every  passer-by  the  chasm  between  your  professions 
and  your  practice,  the  discord  of  your  faith  and  your 
lives. 

"  But,  beloved,  we  are  persuaded  better  things  of 
you,  and  things  that  accompany  salvation."  You 
know,  for  you  have  been  long  and  faithfully  taught, 
that  mercy  is  better  than  sacrifice ;  that  ye  are  the 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  293 

temple  of  God,  —  your  bodies  his  building,  your 
souls  his  inspiration  ;  that  the  spirit  of  God  dvvelleth 
in  you,  unless  you  drive  it  out,  and  grieve  it  away ; 
and  that  if  the  sacrilege  of  a  material  temple  is 
severely  punished,  much  more  heinous  is  the  des- 
ecration of  the  living  sanctuary  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
"  If  any  man  defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall 
God  destroy  ;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  ye  are." 

To  this  Union,  then,  of  Religion  and  Life, — 
the  end  of  churches  and  Scriptures,  Prophets  and 
Apostles,  of  Christ  and  him  crucified,  —  your  at- 
tention is  invited.  For  *'the  glory  of  the  Lord 
that  fills  the  house  of  the  Lord "  is  not,  as  in  the 
elder  time,  a  visible  cloud,  —  cloud  of  miracle,  or 
cloud  of  ever-burning  incense, — but  the  assembly 
of  the  just,  the  benevolent,  and  the  heavenly-minded. 
Come  these  hither,  and  tjie  charm  of  a  sweet  sanc- 
tity has  already  fallen  upon  porch  and  pillar,  court 
and  pulpit,  and  hallowed  the  spot  as  the  house  of 
God  and  the  gate  of  heaven.  God's  children  in 
God's  temple,  Christ's  disciples  in  Christ's  church, 
living  temples  of  the  Spirit  in  the  house  which  faith 
builds  and  blesses,  these  complete  the  offering,  and 
add  consecration  to  consecration. 

I.  But  as  we  approach  our  subject,  the  first  thought 
is,  Hoio  wide  apart  are  religion  and  life^  even  'in  the 
most  enlightened  nations  of  Christendom  !  —  how  fear- 
ful the  discrepancy,  how  unnatural  the  divorce,  be- 
tween the  faith  and  the  moral  conduct  of  professed 

25  • 


294  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Christians!  This  grim  fact  frowns  upon  us  from 
every  page  of  the  history  of  the  Church.  There  is 
blood  upon  the  leaf,  and  the  record  of  wrong  and 
cruelty  and  persecution  among  the  followers  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  The  Gospel  has  been  dreadfully 
corrupted.  Dark  doctrines,  at  which  "  Reason  stands 
aghast,  and  Faith  herself  is  half  confounded,"  have 
been  imported  into  its  pure  creed  from  Jewish  rab- 
bins and  pagan  philosophers.  The  true  nature  of 
God,  as  One  and  as  our  Father,  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
One  and  as  our  Saviour,  and  the  true  nature  of  man, 
as  the  child  of  God,  have  suffered  a  disastrous 
eclipse.  The  same  tyranny  that  has  hoarded  power, 
wealth,  and  honors  in  the  hands  of  the  few  from  the 
possession  of  the  many,  has  cloistered  religion,  re- 
stricted it  to  priests,  muffled  its  services  in  dead  lan- 
guages, forbidden  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  and 
reduced  the  number  of  the  elect  to  a  mere  handful. 
The  treasury  of  the  Lord  has  been  locked  against 
the  Lord's  poor.  The  Gospel  has  been  hidden  away 
in  mysteries  of  faith  and  ceremony,  as  if 

"  too  bright  or  good 
For  human  nature's  daily  food." 

The  Church  has  stood  too  proudly  and  technically 
apart  from  the  walks  of  business  and  the  daily  lives 
of  men,  and  not  blended  her  influence  with  every 
interest  and  movement  of  society.  What  wonder, 
then,  that  ignorance  and  vice,  pauperism  and  crime, 
have  flooded  the  Christian  cities  like  a  deluge,  and 
that  war,  oppression,   licentiousness,   intemperance. 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  295 

still  prey  upon  the  fairest  countries  of  the  cross  ? 
Raminohun  Roy  comes  from  India  to  England,  ex- 
pecting to  witness  a  national  embodiment  of  the 
Gospel,  and  is  shocked  beyond  measure  at  the  dis- 
tance between  religion  as  a  theory  and  religion  as  a 
life.  Travellers  cross  the  Atlantic  to  find  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  hopes  in  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims ;  and 
in  the  republic,  as  in  the  monarchy,  they  witness 
mobs  and  Lynch-laws,  wars  of  conquest,  institutions 
of  bondage,  the  rum-shop  and  the  gallows,  kindred 
cause  and  effect,  the  poor  without  work,  and  souls 
of  God  without  hope.  And  what  shall  we  say  of 
Rome,  swarming  with  beggars  ;  Naples,  city  of  dun- 
geons ;  France,  poised  on  a  revolutionary  centre ; 
Germany,  sceptical  and  restless ;  Austria  and  Rus- 
sia, stern  and  despotic?  Two  millions  of  bayonets 
keep  the  peace  and  crush  the  soul  of  Europe.  The 
timid,  or  the  unbelieving,  lookmg  at  these  things,  ask 
in  sorrow,  or  in  scorn.  Are  these  your  Christian  na- 
tions, then  where  are  the  Pagans  ? 

While,  then,  we  dedicate  this  house  to  Christian 
faith  and  worship,  we  do  it  not  as  a  solitary  and 
final  act,  but  as  one  means  of  uniting  them  in  closer 
bonds  with  human  life,  of  reducing  principles  to 
practice,  and  dissipating  the  shame  and  scandal  of 
Christendom.  It  is  not  denied  that,  so  far  from  be- 
ing a  failure,  Christianity  has  done  an  immeasurable 
good  to  mankind,  and  won  its  way,  against  moun- 
tains of  opposition,  to  a  world-wide  diffusion.  It 
has  taught  and  nurtured  and  raised  to  heaven  a  mul- 


(uhivbrsitV 


296  UNION    OP    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

titude  which  no  man  can  number.  But  by  being 
perverted  from  its  original  purity,  by  "  the  shortening 
of  its  commandments  and  the  lengthening  of  its 
creeds,"  by  the  separation  of  piety  and  morality,  and 
by  the  decrying  of  good  works,  as  neither  cause,  con- 
dition, or  occasion  of  salvation,  Christ  has  been 
wounded  in  the  house  of  his  friends.  Men  have 
gone  on  sinning  and  suffering  and  dying  in  one 
sphere,  while  he  has  shone  bright  and  sunlike  in 
another.  "  Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  ?  is  there 
no  physician  there  ?  "  asked  the  Hebrew  prophet ; 
"  why,  then,  is  not  the  health  of  the  daughter  of  my 
people  recovered  ?  "  Yes,  the  balm  and  the  oil  and 
the  wine  are  there,  but  the  priest  and  the  Levite 
have  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  The  resources  of 
the  moral  creation,  like  those  of  the  material,  are  not 
yet  half  laid  open  and  applied  to  use.  A  few  simple 
principles  of  the  natural  world,  reduced  to  practical 
application,  have  piled  the  Crystal  Palace  with  the 
choicest  works  of  beauty  and  use.  In  like  manner, 
the  incorporation  of  the  sentiments  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  in  the  life  of  the  family,  the  individual, 
and  the  state,  will  yield  those  pure  and  heavenly 
forms  of  character  before  which  all  material  works 
grow  dim.     The  riches  of  Christ  are  inexhaustible. 

Spiritual  Franklins  are  arising  to  teach  us  this 
philosophy  of  application,  this  Gospel  economy,  that 
shall  convert  to  human  welfare  the  storehouse  of 
truths  and  motives  and  principles  in  the  word  of 
God.     Robert  Raikes  gives  us  the  Sunday  School ; 


UNION    OP    RELIGION    AND  XIFE.  297 

Worcester,  the  Peace  Society;  Father  Matthew, 
Temperance  ;  Channing,  Freedom  ;  Tuckerman,  the 
Ministry  at  Large  ;  Dix,  the  Amelioration  of  the  In- 
sane ;  Mann,  Common  School  Education,  —  all  but 
radii  of  the  central  light. 

One  age  has  one  work,  and  another  another. 
Ours  would  seem  to  be,  to  unite  life  and  life's  law 
and  love,  to  blend  in  harmonious  action  the  highest 
spirituality  and  the  common  duties,  to  show  the  child 
of  earth  how  he  can  live  like  an  heir  of  heaven. 
Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  we  are  engaged  as  a 
Christian  denomination  chiefly  in  the  disagreeable 
work  of  controversy,  in  exploding  antiquated  errors, 
but,  in  common  with  many  other  Christians,  in  the 
practical  application  of  the  Gospel  to  the  institutions, 
habits,  and  customs  of  men.  This  is  our  future,  and, 
we  believe,  the  future  of  the  Church  Universal.  The 
most  noxious  of  all  errors  is  the  practical  one  that 
salvation  is  effected  by  some  diplomacy,  some  ma- 
chinery, the  performance  of  some  priestly  office  or 
set  action,  not  by  the  domestication  of  wisdom  and 
love  in  the  heart  and  conduct;  for,  though  good 
works  are  not  the  cause  of  salvation,  that  being  the 
free,  unpurchased  mercy  of  God,  they  are  the  condi- 
tions of  it,  as  the  parable  of  the  Judgment  bears 
witness.  If  the  different  sects  of  Christians  would 
consent  to  adjourn  for  a  time  their  conflicts,  after  the 
manner  of  the  ancient  "truce  of  God,"  and  expend 
their  energies  in  ameliorating  the  condition  and  ele- 
vating the  character  of  mankind,  and  they  should 


298  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

find,  after  one  century  spent  in  the  godlike  work  of 
trying  to  make  men  better,  that  they  have  any  appe- 
tite left  for  bickering  and  quarrelling  with  one  an- 
other, it  will  be  time  enough  then  to  resume  their 
weapons  and  renew  the  combat.  But  they  will 
then  probably  make  the  happy  discovery,  that  while 
they  have,  by  practical  works  of  benevolence  and 
righteousness,  been  drawing  nearer  to  the  great  Ex- 
emplar, "who  went  about  doing  good,"  they  have 
been  also  drawing  nearer  to  one  another. 

11.  There  are  two  principal  considerations  to  en- 
force the  union  of  religion  and  human  life ;  viz.  that 
thus  only  can  religion  have  reality^  or  life  have  sacred- 
ness. 

1.  We  plead  for  this  union  for  the  sake  of  Chris- 
tianity, To  be  real  and  true,  in  the  highest  sense,  as 
embodied  by  man,  it  must  be  rooted  and  grounded 
in  the  experiences  of  the  heart,  and  acted  out  habit- 
ually in  the  life.  It  may  exist  indeed  as  a  senti- 
ment, as  a  creed,  as  a  history,  or  as  an  institution  ; 
it  may  be  written  down  in  a  book,  built  into  stately 
architecture,  sculptured  in  marble,  or  represented  on 
the  canvas.  Much  of  the  existing  Christianity  of 
the  world  rests  contented  with  these  manifestations. 
But  neither  in  literature,  art,  or  material  form  can  it 
have  any  exhibition  so  like  its  own  divine  nature,  as 
in  a  human  soul,  fashioned  and  inspired  by  its  truth. 
The  humblest  Christian  believer  is  a  grander  temple 
of  the  spirit  than  St.  Peter's.  "  Ye,"  said  Paul  to 
the  Corinthians,  "  are  our  epistle,  written  in  our 
hearts,  known  and  read  of  all  men." 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  299 

Nor  is  this  principle  of  faith,  truth,  goodness,  an 
option  with  man  ;  it  is  a  necessity.  "  For  it  is  not 
a  vain  thing  for  you :  because  it  is  your  life."  It  is 
not  only  the  reality  and  substance  of  life,  but  its  in- 
most, indestructible  reality.  It  is  the  life  of  the  life. 
For  the  soul,  with  immortal  eyes,  looks  beyond 
wheat-fields  and  warehouses,  and  yearns  without 
ceasing  for  a  more  substantial  inheritance.  Give  it 
Californias  and  Australias  of  gold,  give  it  worlds, 
and  its  hunger  would  still  be  unsatisfied.  But  give 
it  the  Gospel,  and,  through  the  Gospel,  God  and 
Christ,  and  it  inherits  the  earth  and  inherits  heaven. 
By  that  title,  all  belong  to  the  soul ;  whether  "  the 
world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to 
come,"  all  are  the  soul's. 

It  is  the  office  of  our  earthly  discipline  not  to  un- 
settle, but  to  confirm,  this  essential  reality  and  pos- 
session. For  though  the  religious  life  will  have  its 
rare  moments,  —  its  Transfigurations  and  its  Pente- 
costs,  its  Sabbaths  and  high  festivals,  its  song  and 
prayer  rising  to  heaven,  its  rapt  communings  with 
the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  —  yet  these  occasions  will 
become  all  the  more  real  and  healthful,  when  they 
are  the  bright  foreground  to  a  background  of  duties 
well  done,  and  trials  well  borne.  The  hours  of  our 
devotion  and  meditation  may  carry  up  our  souls  to 
heaven,  but  they  have  a  blameless  sincerity  and  joy 
only  when  no  ghosts  of  neglected  trusts  or  abused 
powers  rise  up  to  haunt  us  with  their  terrors.  So 
ought  the  lowliest  domestic  or  social  duty  and  the 


300  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

noblest  thoughts  of  God  to  act  and  react  upon  one 
another.  So  ought  our  piety,  putting  aside  its 
monkish  garb,  to  enter  into  the  every-day  life  of  the 
school,  the  shop,  the  street,  the  field,  the  boat,  wher- 
ever we  go  and  whatever  we  do.  Wherever  God  is 
and  the  soul,  there  is  duty,  religion,  and  there  may 
be  heaven.  The  sphere  of  the  Gospel  is  as  broad  as 
life.  It  makes  man  man,  and  w;oman  woman.  It 
knocks  at  the  door  of  every  human  heart,  and  it  asks 
to  enter  in,  not  as  a  guest  for  one  night,  but  as  an 
intimate  friend  to  abide,  assist,  and  love  for  ever. 

In  our  country  especially,  and  in  its  newest  parts, 
Christianity,  in  order  to  be  real  to  men,  and  to  con- 
tinue to  command  either  their  faith  or  respect,  must 
be  embodied  in  this  way.  We  know  of  no  religion 
able  to  control  a  republic  but  this,  for  no  other  estab- 
lishes so  strong  a  law  within,  and  thus  supplies  the 
place  of  external  force.  Something  must  really  gov- 
ern mankind,  —  if  not  sceptres  and  swords,  then 
truths  and  principles.  And  we  know  of  no  other 
form  of  Christianity  which  will  eventually  be  capa- 
ble of  maintaining  its  hold  amidst  the  free  working 
and  wide  range  of  our  institutions,  but  that  which  is 
reasonable,  liberal,  and  progressive.  It  is  here  to  put 
forth  new  energies  for  the  demand  of  the  times. 
Where  knowledge  and  power  and  wealth  are  open 
to  all,  —  where  we  "  call  no  man  master,"  —  amidst 
this  brilliant  outburst  of  arts,  sciences,  literatures, 
and  civilizations,  with  so  many  interests  to  hurry  us 
away  to  a  superficial  life  and  drown  in  the  noises 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  301 

and  discords  of  worldly  activity  the  eternal  voice  of 
conscience,  —  here  we  erect  a  new  altar  to  a  rational 
and  practical  faith,  as  the  only  power  in  the  uni- 
verse, short  of  the  direct  interposition  of  God,  which 
can  sanctify  and  save  us.  But  the  increase  of  crime, 
incident  to  the  waking  up  of  the  human  mind  to  a 
new  action  and  ambition,  the  coming  upon  the  stage 
of  restless,  gigantic  republics  on  both  sides  of  the 
ocean,  admonish  us  that  new  tests  and  trials  of  this 
faith  are  to  come,  and  that  this  is  no  hour,  when  all 
the  world  is  wide  awake,  for  the  watchman  on  the 
tower  to  sleep,  so  that,  when  asked,  "  What  of  the 
night?"  he  cannot  answer,"  The  morning  cometh." 
But  so  far  from  fearing  the  decline  and  fading 
away  of  the  Gospel,  while  the  world  is  becoming  re- 
publican, and  the  earth  is  resounding  on  land  and 
sea  as  never  before  with  the  stir  of  industrial  and 
associative  action,  we  hail  this  as  the  very  age  and 
sphere  in  which  it  is  more  fully  to  show  what  it  is, 
and  to  wear  a  still  brighter  crown  of  power  and 
honor.  When  men  possess  their  rights,  we  can 
more  consistently  call  on  them  to  perform  tiieir  du- 
ties. The  energy  of  human  life  will  give  new  reality 
to  religion.  Here  and  there  may  be  an  outbreak  of 
license  or  unbelief,  one  and  another  may  write  a 
book  against  Christianity  that  will  be  a  nine  days' 
wonder,  but  it  is  only  a  ripple  on  the  stream.  The 
mighty  current  is  onward.  The  great  humanity,  in- 
stinctively true  to  itself,  will  still  worship  God,  and 
have  faith  in  Christ.     Half  a  dozen  men,  scattered 

26 


302  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

through  as  many  countries,  a  Voltaire,  a  Strauss, 
may  make  a  great  clattering  on  the  outworks  of  rev- 
elation, and  cause  a  sensation,  as  one  man  can 
alarm  a  whole  city  at  night  by  the  cry  of  fire ;  but 
the  heart  of  the  world  remains  essentially  true  to  its 
religious  as  to  its  social  nature,  if  you  will  give  it 
time  ;  and  God  can  no  more  lack  worshippers,  or 
Jesus  disciples,  than  youthful  love,  domestic  joy, 
parental  and  filial  affection,  can  cease  to  entrance  the 
human  breast.  But  in  order  to  live,  and  do  its  bless- 
ed office,  our  religion  must  gain  its  just  supremacy 
over  the  whole  of  life.  Its  realization  must  not  be 
in  churches,  priests,  ceremonies,  alone,  but  in  noble 
men  and  women,  who  have  been  formed  by  it,  and 
who  are  the  persuasive  testimonies  of  its  efficacy  to 
save  and  bless.  It  must  baptize  us,  not  only  with 
water,  but  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,  and 
not  only  give  us  Christian  names,  but  a  Christian 
manhood.  No,  we  want  no  cast-iron  preacher,  pro- 
posed by  the  satirist,  no  outgrown  creeds,  and  thread- 
bare forms  of  the  Dark  Ages.  Give  us  the  New  Tes- 
tament  and  the  New  Testament  services  and  rites, 
and  the  spirit  of  Christ  shall  yet  be  Ihe  spirit  of  so- 
ciety, the  star  of  Bethlehem  the  pole-star  of  our  new 
heavens  and  new  earth ;  and  Christianity  applied 
shall  be  Christianity  glorified. 

2.  But  if  we  invert  the  proposition,  it  is  equally 
true.  If  life  must  be  connected  with  religion  to  give 
it  reality,  religion,  on  the  other  hand,  is  thus  to  impart 
sanctity  and  dignity  to  life. 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  303 

Unconnected  with  religion,  and  through  religion 
with  God  and  immortality  by  the  exercise  of  faith 
and  hope,  how  bankrupt  is  existence  of  all  real  in- 
terest, all  true  worth  and  aim !  Talk  of  the  dulness 
of  religion !  the  life  of  a  hermit  is  animation  itself 
compared  with  the  ennui  of  intense  worldliness,  the 
dregs  and  lees  of  a  miscalled  life  of  pleasure,  the  in- 
sipidity of  living  without  the  soul  of  life.  In  fact, 
the  details  immediately  begin  to  pall  on  us,  when 
we  lose  sight  of  the  right  object  of  our  existence. 
How  shall  we  feel  it  to  be  worth  the  while  to  prose 
on,  day  after  day,  doing  a  thousand  unimportant 
little  acts,  repeating  ourselves  over  and  over  again  to 
satiety,  running  without  cessation  the  gauntlet  of 
care,  hit  by  many  a  hard  blow  on  either  hand,  over- 
taken by  innumerable  trials,  if  no  higher  result  is  to 
come  from  it  at  all  than  the  same  career  continued 
to  the  end  ?  A  fabric  of  considerable  dignity  for  the 
time  being  may  be  constructed  on  the  basis  of  the 
home  sentiments,  on  politics,  business,  art,  letters  ; 
but  if  it  be  no  more  than  that,  the  swift  and  silent 
lapse  of  time  will  fret  away  its  beauty ;  and  when  a 
hundred  years  are  told,  how  ridiculous  are  many  of 
the  pursuits  which  enlisted  a  whole  generation ! 
Now,  they  are  of  no  more  account  than  the  soap- 
bubbles  which  we  blew  in  childhood.  They  are 
gone,  utterly  gone  into  thin  air,  and  if  they  left  no 
mark  on  the  soul  worthy  of  its  nature  and  destiny, 
it  was  but  a  waste  of  the  substance  of  life  for  its 
hadow.     No;  we  must  live  for  more  than  art  or 


304  UNION    OP    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

calling,  home  or  country ;  we  are  summoned  to  a  no- 
bler style  of  character,  to  live  for  the  soul,  for  God, 
and  thus  in  fact  to  live  best  for  our  art  and  calling, 
our  home  and  country. 

Life  wants  a  restraint,  and  religion  is  that  re- 
straint. It  demands  an  excitement,  and  religion  is 
that  inspiration.  It  needs  a  consolation,  and  religion 
is  that  comforter.  Life  wants  a  connecting  staple 
that  shall  run  through  all  its  scenes,  trials,  and  du- 
ties, and  unite  them  in  one  harmonious  purpose,  and 
religion  is  that  staple.  It  is  the  golden  chain,  let 
down  from  heaven,  to  draw  us  upward.  Religion  is 
a  relig-atioj  a  re-ligament,  a  binding  again  of  what 
had  been  severed,  a  reconciliation  of  God  and  man, 
a  union  of  the  duties  of  time  and  the  destinies  of 
futurity. 

Hence,  if  religion  be  abstract  and  visionary  with- 
out its  application,  life  is  grovelling  and  mean  with- 
out this  correspondence  with  the  skies.  To  separate 
the  two  is  in  fact  like  reducing  the  air  to  its  compo- 
nent elements,  and  attempting  to  breathe  the  ex- 
hilarating oxygen  of  faith  alone,  that  would  drive  us 
into  insanity,  or  to  inhale  the  heavy  carbon  and 
azote  of  the  world  alone,  which  would  be  equally 
fatal.  "  What  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man 
put  asunder." 

Let  it  not,  then,  be  thought  that  there  is  anything 
impracticable  or  Quixotic  in  this  union.  Nothing, 
in  truth,  is  so  practical  as  Christianity,  for  nothing 
enters  so  deeply  and  vitally  into  the  heart ;  and  it  is 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  305 

in  the  heart  we  are  happy  or  miserable,  live  or  die. 
Houses  and  lands  are  not  practical,  gold  and  silver 
are  not  practical,  compared  with  that  which  weaves 
itself  into  the  texture  of  the  inner  and  immortal  man, 
which  thinks  with  our  thoughts,  and  feels  with  our 
feeling,  and  which  when  a  thousand  ages  have  rolled 
away  will  be  as  young  and  elastic  as  ever.  Milton's 
eyesight  was  a  blessing,  but  when  he  lost  it,  he  could 
still  retire  within,  and  be  glorious  and  happy.  He 
is  the  real  fanatic  who  loses  his  soul  to  gain  the 
world,  not  he  who  loses  the  world  to  save  his  soul. 

The  practical  character  of  religion  is  also  shown 
by  the  fact  that  e very-day  life,  as  much  as  any  art 
or  calling,  has  its  highest  law,  in  a  word,  its  ideal, 
and  that  to  be  spiritually-minded  is  but  to  act  up  to 
that  loftier  standard  in  every  thing,  thought,  action, 
progress.  Why,  then,  should  not  every  one  hasten 
to  do  whatever  he  is  doing  in  the  best  possible  way, 
so  that  he  may  "  make  e'en  servile  labors  shine  "  ?  In 
this  sense,  all  things  have  or  should  have  their  relig- 
ion, or  supreme  law.  There  is  a  religion  of  the 
purse  and  of  the  pen ;  a  religion  of  the  table  and  of 
the  toilet ;  a  religion  of  the  kitchen  and  of  the  parlor  ; 
a  religion  of  eating  and  of  drinking ;  a  religion  of 
the  closet  and  of  the  street;  a  religion  of  home  and 
of  the  boat  and  car  ;  a  religion  of  books  and  of  buy- 
ing and  selling ;  a  religion  of  church  and  of  the  mar- 
ket;  a  religion  of  getting  and  of  giving;  a  religion 
of  night  and  of  day,  of  summer  and  winter,  youth 
and  age;  a  religion  of  riches  and  poverty,  of  man 

26* 


306  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

and  woman,  of  president  and  people.  For  it  is 
plain,  that,  when  into  all  these  scenes  and  relations  a 
right  spirit  of  wisdom  and  love  is  borne,  they  can 
each  yield  some  separate  and  peculiar  good.  They 
in  fact  are  the  rounds  of  the  ladder,  whose  foot  is  on 
the  earth  and  whose  top  is  in  the  clouds,  by  which 
we  make  our  way  upwards.  The  circumstances  and 
accidents  of  our  being  are  not  excrescences  and  im- 
pertinences, which  we  are  to  bear  with  impatience 
and  get  rid  of  if  we  can,  but  they  are  the  door 
of  opportunity  through  which  we  are  to  pass  on. 
Rightly  used,  they  are  steps  of  moral  culture.  And 
we  can  justify  ourselves  in  none  of  them,  in  which 
our  best  self,  our  highest  spirituality,  may  not  enter 
and  domesticate  itself;  else  we  wound  the  integrity 
and  sincerity  of  our  Christian  consciousness.  These 
are  the  very  places  where  the  law  of  Christ  should 
bind  closest,  and  the  love  of  Christ  glow  brightest 
and  warmest.  This  is  the  true  office  of  his  every 
precept,  every  promise. 

Mrs.  Child  remarks  in  one  of  her  letters  :  *  "  Every 
thing  about  war  I  loathe  and  detest  except  its  music. 
My   heart  leaps  at  the  trumpet-call,   and   marches 

with  the  drum The  instinct  awakened   by 

martial  music  is  noble  and  true ;  and  therefore  its 
voice  will  not  pass  away ;  but  it  will  remain  a  type 
of  that  spiritual  combat,  whereby  the  soul  is  puri- 
fied." If  Christianity  were  more  fully  recognized  as 
the  grand  inspirer  and  motive-power  of  the  soul  in 

*  Vol.  I.  p.  9. 


U   NION    OF    RELIGIOxN    AND    LIFE.  307 

its  life-battle,  it  would  be  relieved  of  much  of  that 
gloomy  and  depressing  air,  which  is  associated  with 
it  in  the  minds  of  the  young.  It  is  so  much  more 
frequently  held  up  as  a  restraint  from  evil,  than  a 
prompter  to  good,  that  it  fails  to  nerve  and  cheer  the 
soul,  as  it  might,  in  the  conflict  with  temptation. 
The  immortal  is  not  fully  aroused  to  action.  Men 
creep  about  in  their  tortuous  ways  and  prey  upon  one 
another,  when  the  law  of  God  should  be  pealed  in 
their  ears,  authoritatively,  not  to  terrify,  but  to  wake  up 
their  spiritual  energies.  It  does  us  great  good  simply 
to  hear  a  moral  truth  stated,  for  it  goes  sounding  on 
through  the  chambers  of  the  soul,  until  it  calls  up 
every  sleeping  faculty.  There  is  faith  and  truth 
enough  in  every  man  to  save  him,  if  they  could  be 
converted  from  cold  abstractions  into  vital  motives. 
We  must  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith.  We  must 
not  slide  into  this  easy  indulgence,  this  fatal  acqui- 
escence with  the  world  as  it  is  and  ourselves  as  we 
are,  but,  with  a  stiff  and  stubborn  will,  strive,  in  the 
words  of  Alfred  the  Great,  "  with  all  our  might  to 
right  every  wrong."  Our  resolution  must  have  an 
edge  to  it,  to  cut  through  opposition,  and  life,  which 
must  ever  be  a  conflict,  losing  or  gaining,  wilj  notthen 
prove  a  defeat,  but  a  glorious  victory.  The  praise 
of  a  genuine  good  man  and  Christian  hero  is  on 
every  tongue,  but  how  few  aspire  and  toil  to  be  like 
him !  We  eulogize  and  canonize  dead  saints,  but 
that  is  idle  unless  we  labor  to  make  living  ones, 
which  would  be  far  better.     As  we  look  on  a  serene 


308  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

and  holy  face  of  Fenelon,  or  Charming,  we  exclaim, 
how  beautiful,  how  angelic!  But  do  we  not  hear 
the  call  to  put  every  day  one  more  line  into  our  en- 
graving of  the  divine,  to  bring  out  in  fuller  expression 
the  spiritual,  to  soften  some  rugged  feature,  to  seize 
and  fix  some  new  beauty,  and  to  transform  by  little 
and  little  the  image  of  the  earthy  into  the  image  of 
the  heavenly  ?  For  the  work  of  works  is  this,  to 
mould  the  features  of  the  soul  more  and  more  dis- 
tinctly after  the  lineaments  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

The  lesson  from  all  which  tenor  of  remarks  is,  that 
faith  is  not  to  end  in  faith,  nor  prayer  in  prayer,  nor 
churches  in  churches.  They  are  modes  and  motives 
to  marshal  and  inspirit  the  soul  in  its  battle  against 
sin  and  evil.  We  read  that  in  the  time  of  Jesus 
"  the  blind  and  the  lame  came  to  him  in  the  temple ; 
and  he  healed  them."  So  now  he  spiritually  opens 
the  eyes  of  the  blind,  and  restores  the  lame  and  halt, 
who  come  to  him  in  the  temple.  Christianity  has 
no  greater  office  than  to  make  good  men.  Jesus 
came  to  save  men  from  their  sins,  not  in  their  sins, 
and  from  further  sinning.  He  came  that  we  might 
have  life,  and  that  we  might  have  it  more  abundantly, 
the  ever-increasing  life  of  the  spiritual  and  immortal 
nature. 

The  dedication  of  this  Church,  in  which  both  pas- 
tor and  people  have  taken  so  deep  and  effectual  an 
interest,  the  consummation  of  your  labors,  and  the 
answer  to  your  prayers,  fixes  a  date  in  your  lives 
which  you  can  never  forget.     May  it  prove  the  dawn 


UNION    OF    RELIGION   AND    LIFE.  309 

of  a  still  more  luminous  exhibition  of  the  power  of 
the  Gospel  over  your  characters,  and  its  unsullied  re- 
flection from  every  part  of  your  existence ! 

For  in  what  part  or  point  is  not  the  necessity  of 
the  union  of  faith  and  spiritual  obedience  marked  as 
with  a  beam  of  light  ? 

Take  the  Duties  of  Life.  What  an  intricate  and 
infinite  network  is  spread  out  before  us  !  Duty,  duty, 
everywhere,  and  always  duty !  Its  bell  is  ringing 
every  hour.  At  home  to  our  families,  abroad  to  so- 
ciety, evermore  to  God  and  the  soul.  We  awake  in 
the  morning,  and  duty  stands  by  the  bedside  to  lead 
us  forth  to  the  new  day.  We  retire  at  night,  and 
duty  bends  over  our  pillow,  and  hearkens  to  our 
prayer.  How  inexorable  the  demand  on  our  atten- 
tion, will,  memory,  resolution,  not  to  fail  in  any  ob- 
ligation I  "  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ? " 
Only  he  who  has  married  in  closest  wedlock  his  re- 
ligion and  his  life.  Then,  whether  we  eat,  or  drink, 
or  whatsoever  we  do,  we  shall  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God.  We  shall  present  ourselves  as  a  living  sacri- 
fice, holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  our  reason- 
ble  service. 

Take  the  Trials  of  Life.  No  home,  no  heart,  how- 
ever pure  and  happy,  can  claim  exemption.  They 
are  the  lot  of  man,  they  are  the  appointment  of 
God.  Every  circle  has  its  martyrs,  every  life  has  its 
cross.  But  trials  without  religion  descend  on  the 
human  heart  like  a  sword  on  the  unshielded  breast. 
There  is  nothing  to  parry  the  blow,  nor  to  heal  the 


310  UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

wound.  Revelation  only  can  point  with  assurance 
to  heaven  while  standing  by  the  open  tomb,  and 
show  the  vanished  forms  of  the  loved  and  lost  em- 
bosomed in  a  celestial  sphere.  The  Gospel  only 
comforts,  the  Gospel  only  heals  the  broken  heart. 
That  alone  has  the  discrimination,  when  "  God 
sends  his  darker  spirits  down,"  to  discern  that  they 
too  are  a  part  of  the  infinite  heavenly  hosts. 

Consider  the  Temptations  of  Life.  They  are 
around  and  within  us,  and  close  about  us  on  every 
side.  If  we  go  forward,  they  are  there,  and  if  we 
retreat,  they  ambuscade  our  path  ;  some,  dark  and 
dismal  to  terrify ;  some,  clothed  as  angels  of  light  to 
deceive ;  some,  devils  to  repel ;  some,  sirens  to  al- 
lure ;  some  approach  gradually,  and  some  spring 
upon  us  with  a  tiger's  leap. 

"  Beware  of  all,  guard  every  part, 
But  most,  the  traitor  in  thy  heart." 

W  'hout  religion  we  step  into  pitfalls  with  un- 
wary feet,  and  slide  in  slippery  places.  But  at  the 
touch  of  that  Ithuriel  spear,  evil  and  sin  are  un- 
masked, and  stand  forth  in  their  native  deformity. 
The  word  of  Christ  can  disarm  the  powers  of  the 
world,  and  say  to  the  most  formidable,  Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan. 

But  life  is  not  all  duty,  trial,  and  temptation ;  it 
also  has  its  Joys  and  Prosperities.  And  herein  quite 
as  much  as  in  the  other  do  we  need  the  wisdom  of 
Christ.     For  then  joys  will  be  joys,  not  sorrows  in 


UNION    OF    RELIGION    AND    LIFE.  311 

gay  masks ;  joys  that  leave  no  sting  behind ;  joys 
in  principal,  giving  fuller  joys  in  interest;  joys  lead- 
ing on  to  brighter  and  eternal  joys. 

Come  then,  thou  Gracious  Influence  of  the  Good 
Spirit  from  above,  and  unite  with  the  soul  —  "a 
traveller  between  life  and  death" — in  its  pas- 
sage through  time  to  eternity.  Let  Life  give 
realization  and  development  to  Religion,  and  let 
Religion  give  sanctity,  aim,  and  strength  to 
Life.  Neither  can  fulfil  its  design  without  the 
other.  The  more  thoroughly  life  and  faith  are  in- 
woven, the  more  worthy  is  life,  the  more  glorious 
is  religion.  Let  us  not  say,  Business  is  business, 
and  religion  is  religion ;  and  think  to  serve  God  in 
one,  and  Mammon  in  the  other.  But  rather  let  us 
say.  Business  is  religion,  or  may  be  made  such  ; 
and  religion  is  business,  our  higher,  life-long  business, 
"  our  being's  end  and  aim,"  covering  all  places  and 
pursuits,  going  with  us  by  day  and  resting  with  us 
by  night,  abroad  and  at  home,  the  main-spring  of  the 
whole  man,  and  moving  head  and  heart  and  tongue 
and  hand.  It  is  the  friendly  office  of  that  holy 
faith,  to  which  we  now  devote  this  church  in  all 
its  parts,  uses,  and  influences,  to  be  the  teacher  of 
our  duties,  our  comfort  in  sorrow,  our  bulwark 
against  temptation,  and,  after  being  our  guide  all 
our  journey  through,  to  hover  on  angel  wings  over 
the  bed  of  death,  and  lead  the  departing  spirit  home 
to  the  Heavenly  Father's  mansion. 


DISCOURSE    XVIII. 


THE  BLESSINGS  OF  A  DAY. 


THIS   IS   THE   DAT  THE   LORD   HATH   MADE  ',   WE  WILL   REJOICE  AND 

BE  GLAD  IN  IT.  —  Psalm  cxvui.  24. 


The  blessings  we  receive  from  the  Giver  of  all 
good  are  so  constant  and  numerous,  that  it  requires 
an  act  of  attention  and  abstraction  to  feel  their 
steady  and  copious  stream.  Hence  we  may  gain  a 
more  vivid  conception  of  them,  and  be  quickened  to 
a  livelier  gratitude  and  a  more  faithful  use,  by  sur- 
veying them  in  detail  rather  than  in  the  mass.  For 
what  we  thus  lose  in  magnitude  and  number,  we 
more  than  make  up  by  distinctness  and  strength  of 
impression.  One-  insulated  gift  of  the  vast  throng 
will  send  a  thrill  through  the  veins,  when  "  the  mul- 
titude of  mercies  "  only  wakes  a  vague  and  passing 
acknowledgment  of  the  goodness  of  God. 

"  The  blessings  of  a  day  "  is  the  subject  to  which 
your  thoughts  are  now  invited.  The  gifts  of  the 
year  are  commemorated  by  an  annual  festival  of 
Thanksgiving.     The  favors  of  a  lifetime  are  reviewed 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  313 

on  our  birthdays.  The  Sabbath  bespeaks  our  atten- 
tion to  the  providences  of  the  revolving  weeks.  But 
how  seldom  do  we  reflect  on  the  blessings  of  a  day, 
a  single  morn  and  noon  and  eve,  one  day,  to-day. 
Can  we  enumerate  them  without  striking  a  deeper 
note  of  gratitude,  and  kindling  a  higher  flame  of 
resolution  and  responsibility  ? 

A  Day,  what  is  it?  A  space  of  light  between 
two  mountain-walls  of  darkness  ;  a  time  of  redemp- 
tion from  the  kingdom  of  Chaos  and  Old  Night ; 
the  half  or  the  two  thirds  of  life  really  given  us  to 
live ;  the  season  of  consciousness,  duty,  trial ;  the 
end  and  aim  for  which  sleep  is  given,  and  the  veil  of 
temporary  oblivion  and  rest  spread  over  our  faculties 
so  many  hours.  Wonderful  and  rich,  far  beyond  the 
line  of  our  usual  appreciation,  is  the  gift  of  a  day. 
It  stands  like  a  monument  between  the  eternity  of 
the  Past  and  the  eternity  of  the  Future.  All  ages 
have  been  employed  in  bringing  it  forth  ;  all  the  so- 
lar and  supersolar  revolutions  from  the  birth  of  time 
have  been  concerned  in  its  production  ;  and  it  will 
leave  in  turn  its  eternal  mark  on  all  that  is  to  follow, 
fibres  and  filaments  of  influence  radiating  from  its 
humble  hours  to  the  whole  circumference  of  our  ulti- 
mate being.  The  deed  we  do  to-day  shall  be  as 
everlasting  as  God.  When  the  stars  go  out,  and  the 
sun  flickers  in  his  socket,  the  thought,  the  feeling, 
the  fancy  of  this  day  may  blaze  on  the  tablet  of 
memory  fairer  than  the  aurora,  brighter  than  the 
noon,  or  frown  black  as  midnight. 

27 


314  THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 

One  day !  It  is  little ;  a  fugitive  twenty-four 
hours,  a  hurried  routine,  a  mill-horse  round  of  cares 
and  toils,  a  succession  of  meals,  —  breakfast,  dinner, 
supper, —  a  miniature  life,  "  rounded  with  a  sleep," 
a  daybreak  of  childhood,  a  morning  of  youth  and 
hope,  a  noonday  of  manhood  and  activity,  a  twilight 
of  age  and  pensiveness,  a  night  of  death.  How 
quickly  it  is  here,  how  soon  it  is  gone !  We  have 
but  time  to  say  it  is  to-day,  when  behold  it  "was  yes- 
terday ! 

But  in  this  very  shortness  of  a  day  we  discern  a 
benevolent  intention.  Constituted  as  w^e  are,  we 
could  not  bear  the  burden  of  a  double  day.  Liter- 
ally, our  "  strength  is  according  to  our  day,  and  our 
day  according  to  our  strength."  They  have  been 
weighed  and  balanced  by  a  sure  Hand,  one  to  the 
other.  Where,  by  reason  of  position  on  the  earth's 
surface,  the  day  is  lengthened  to  weeks  and  months, 
the  inhabitants  are  yet  obliged  to  do  honor  to  the 
twenty-four  hours'  rule,  and  make  their  artificial 
night  for  rest,  though  the  sun  is  still  above  the  hori- 
zon. So  marvellous  is  the  adaptation  of  every  part 
of  our  being  to  every  other  part.  The  Wisest  and 
Best  has  attempered  all  things  together,  set  one  over 
against  the  other,  written  on  all  the  providence  of 
compensation,  and  made  everything  beautiful  in  its 
season,  —  the  night  after  the  day,  the  winter  after  the 
autumn,  yea,  death  —  solemn,  mysterious  death  — 
after  life. 

The  element  of  which  day  is  made  is  the  most 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  315 

wondrous  and  enchanting  of  all  objects  in  the  uni- 
verse.    Well  sung  the  poet, 

"Hail,  holy  light !  offspring  of  heaven  first  bom, 

Bright  efflaence  of  bright  essence  increate." 

It  appropriates  to  itself  exclusive  possession  and  use 
of  the  leading  sense  of  sight.  The  eye  for  light,  and 
light  for  the  eye.  How  kindly  and  how  exquisite 
the  harmony !  for,  with  a  little  more  vividness  in  the 
element,  or  a  little  more  rigidness  in  the  organ,  the 
pleasantness  of  nature  would  have  been  turned  into 
corrosion  and  anguish,  or  dull  insensibility.  The 
light  is  the  natural  nourishment  and  strengthener  of 
the  eye,  as  much  as  food  of  the  stomach.  We 
awake  every  morning  by  the  stimulus  of  the  light 
addressed  to  this  sense,  a  law  as  sure  and  regular  as 
that  of  gravitation.  Hapless  they  who,  by  unnatu- 
ral customs, turn  night  into  day,  and  day  into  night! 
Hapless  they,  too,  who  maintain  in  their  houses  an 
artificial  night  or  twilight  through  all  the  sunny 
hours,  and  admit  none  of  the  life-giving  beams  of 
the  heavens!  Sweeter  to  sense  and  soul  is  the 
shining  of  the  sun  than  any  manufactured  light  of 
man's  device.  The  solar  lamp,  in  the  quality,  as 
in  the  quantity,  of  its  light,  is  but  a  poor  parody  on 
its  illustrious  namesake.  The  moral  effect  of  the 
light,  as  it  comes  out  of  the  deep  darkness,  has  been 
the  poet's  unwearied  inspiration.  The  first  faint 
gray  in  the  east,  the  deepening  blush  of  the  sky,  the 
glowing  Crimson  of  the  clouds,  —  splendid  heralds  of 


316 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 


the  great  monarch  of  the  heavens,  —  the  golden  edg- 
ing of  the  hills,  the  emerging  disc,  the  infinite  pencil 
of  beams,  the  floods  of  colorless  light,  filling  earth 
and  sky,  touch  and  enkindle  all  our  emotions  of  won- 
der and  beauty. 

The  departure  of  the  light,  also,  is  as  well  suited 
to  the  eye  as  its  advent.  Nothing  violent  and  ab- 
rupt, but  all  is  gentle  and  gradual ;  and  as  the  eyes 
of  innumerable  creatures  were  opened  in  the  morn- 
ing by  a  law,  so  do  they  droop  and  close  by  a  like 
beneficent  law.  The  twilight  of  the  west  is  as  full 
of  moral  suggestion  as  that  of  the  east,  and  the  day 
which  began  in  glory  in  glory  is  ended. 

The  mechanical-  arrangements  by  which  the  day 
is  made,  the  position  of  the  earth  and  the  sun,  and 
their  respective  revolutions,  and  those  of  the  other 
planetary  and  celestial  bodies,  the  nature  of  the  in- 
fluence exerted  on  us  by  the  sun  through  light,  heat, 
and  electricity,  and  other  elements,  too  subtile  and 
delicate  for  our  coarse  senses  to  take  cognizance  of 
them,  all  are  indications  of  the  Fatherly  care  over  us, 
and  fitted  to  assure  us  that  "  this  is  the  day  which 
the  Lord  hath  made,"  and  to  inspire  us  to  "  rejoice 
and  be  glad  in  it."  Can  the  Mighty  One  have 
brought  into  existence  so  magnificent  a  Creation  as 
a  day,  without  designing  to  subserve  by  it  some  wise 
and  noble  end  ?  How  great  is  our  folly  if  we  are 
stone-blind,  through  indifference  and  dull  habit,  to 
this  varied  and  charming  spectacle  !  How  great  is 
our  wickedness,  if  we  darken  God's  hours  of  glorious 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  317 

light  and  beauty  with  black  and  selfish  deeds,  works 
of  the  night,  not  of  the  day! 

We  are  a  utilitarian  people  and  age,  and  we  anx- 
iously ask  what  we  shall  eat,  and  what  we  shall 
drink,  and  wherewithal  we  shall  be  clothed.  Why 
should  we  not  perceive  that  beauty,  too,  is  a  part  of 
life,  of  virtue,  of  happiness, —  that  beauty  has  its  price- 
less use  ?  The  day  would  be  a  far  dearer  and  love- 
lier gift  from  their  Creator  to  many,  if  they  opened 
their  senses  and  souls  to  receive  the  clustering  les- 
sons and  suggestions  of  grace  and  kindness  and 
beauty  which  the  whole  dispensation  is  fruitful  to 
convey.  Its  language  seems  to  be.  Sons  of  men, 
behold  the  wonderful  works  of  the  Almighty.  The 
day  is  no  accident,  no  happy  jumble  of  elements. 
"  This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made"  ;  none 
but  an  Infinite  Power  could  call  into  being  such  a 
wonder.  Its  aurora  is  a  painting  of  the  Artist  of 
all  grace  and  glory ;  its  light  seems  to  be  the  nearest 
resemblance  to  his  own  spiritual  essence  ;  its  scenery 
of  earth  and  sky  is  ever  new,  no  two  days  being  just 
alike  ;  its  blows  of  toil  are  the  striking  of  the  flint  to 
bring  out  the  sparks  of  inextinguishable  fire,  the 
flame  of  infimortal  life,  from  things  hard  and  refrac- 
tory. Its  opening  of  hope  and  beauty,  its  serene 
glory,  its  busy  hours,  its  majestic  march  of  the  sun 
across  the  sky,  its  heat  even  and  burden,  and  then 
its  soothing,  heartfelt  decline  and  gentle  withdrawal, 
testify  to  manifold  ministrations  addressed  to  some- 
thing deeper  and  better  in  us  than  the  animal  part,  to 

27* 


318 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 


greater  uses  than  a  mere  fond  and  superficial  admi- 
ration, or  an  idle  observation,  or  a  low  self-indulgence, 
or  a  sordid  worldliness.  The  whole  day  is  a  moral 
culture,  wonderfully  contrived,  beautifully  equipoised 
and  alternated,  and  mercifully  meant.  Its  glories  of 
morn  and  eve,  its  noontide  of  splendor,  its  rich  light, 
its  stately  processions  of  clouds,  its  infinite  heavens 
of  blue,  are  but  the  framework  and  setting  to  a  pearl 
of  great  price,  the  moral  significance  of  a  day  to  a 
child  of  time  and  an  heir  of  eternity. 

We  discern  a  most  beneficent  intention  in  the  sep- 
aration and  subdivision  of  our  life  into  daily  frag- 
ments. Each  night  is  a  gentle  semi-oblivion,  that 
our  past  lives  may  not  tyrannize  over  us,  that  the 
door  of  progress  may  still  be  kept  open,  that  we  may 
have  in  some  sense  a  new  and  untrammelled  being 
every  day.  Every  night  is  a  faint  death,  every 
morning  a  fresh  birth.  Lest  we  should  become  too 
coarse  and  hard  and  sensual,  and  habit  should  get 
the  better  of  aspiration  and  resolution,  once  every 
twenty-four  hours  we  are  humbled  to  a  state  of  help- 
lessness and  insensibility,  buried  in  forgetfulness,  led 
into  the  land  of  dreams,  the  shadowy  coast  of  spirit- 
ual substances,  dim  sphere  of  our  second  and  inner- 
most selves,  where  we  undergo  strange  metempsy- 
chosis, look  at  ourselves  as  third  persons,  and  return 
to  this  work-day  scene  with  a  strange  consciousness 
of  things  unseen  and  more  beautiful  than  this  world. 
So  are  we  visited  by  spirit-messengers,  and  gales 
from  other  climes  than  earth  blow  over  us.     We  can 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  319 

conceive  of  no  arrangements  better  fitted  for  the 
moral  culture  and  progress  of  man,  than  these  dis- 
pensations of  the  palpable  day  and  the  dreamy 
night ;  the  hard  hours  of  work  and  the  vivid  sense 
of  existence  and  personality,  and  the  soft  veil  of 
darkness,  unconscious  repose,  and  grotesque  and 
gigantic  shapes  of  terror  and  beauty  and  ideal  phan- 
toms. Night  and  sleep  and  dreams  are  for  more 
than  the  body,  they  point  to  sublime  moral  ends, 
and  the  hours  of  repose  are  farther  from  being  a  lost 
portion -of  our  life  than  much  of  what  we  call  our 
conscious  existence.  Strange  to  say,  this  very  pro- 
cess of  steeping  our  senses  in  oblivion,  and  arresting 
every  active  power,  and  locking  up  the  body  in  the 
dark  and  silent  tomb  of  night,  instead  of  weakening 
or  paralyzing  any  faculty,  gives  new  energy  to  the 
whole  man,  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual,  and  bur- 
nishes every  capacity  with  a  lustre  as  of  the  morning 
light.  We  enact  every  time  we  awake  a  mimic  rep- 
resentation of  the  great  Resurrection,  and  penetrate 
anew  into  the  unexpected  realm  of  another  life. 

"And  as  each  morning  sun  shall  rise, 
O,  lead  mo  onward  to  the  skies ! " 

We  yearn  more  than  words  can  describe  for  the 
new,  and  every  morning  the  want  is  satisfied.  An- 
other chance  is  afforded  to  repair  the  errors  of  the 
past  "  Old  things  are  passed  away ;  behold,  all 
things  are  become  new."  Standing  on  the  thresh- 
old  of  the  day,  we  can  say,  "  And  I  saw  a  new 


320  THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 

earth ;  for  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were 
passed  away."  Never  was  such  a  crisis,  never  such 
a  combination  before.  All  history  has  ripened  to 
this  point,  all  ages  have  been  leading  suns  and  sys- 
tems, and  man  and  woman,  to  the  position  of  this 
opening  day.  "  The  Lord's  mercies  are  new  every 
morning."  Seen  by  the  delicate  microscope  of  a 
spiritual  eye,  every  day,  no  doubt,  is  characteristic. 
Not  only  in  the  weather,  and  the  season,  and  the 
outward  aspects  of  land  and  sea  and  sky,  but  in  the 
thousandfold  complexity  of  our  intellectual  and  moral 
moods,  we  never  are  treated  to  exactly  the  same  day. 
New  combinations  are  ever  forming,  new  notes  en- 
tering into  the  song  or  the  cry  which  our  souls  send 
up  to  the  ear  of  the  Deity.  Every  joy  is  a  new  joy, 
every  grief  a  fresh  grief.  As  no  two  men  are  alike, 
no  one  man  is  the  same  two  days  in  succession,  or 
can  be  the  same.  He  is  moved  onward  by  spiritual 
agencies  as  irresistible  as  the  planetary  forces  that 
^weep  him  and  his  whereabouts  into  a  new  spot  in 
the  fields  of  infinite  space,  which  he  never  occupied 
before,  and  never  will  occupy  again.  Hence  the  glo- 
rious opportunity  of  progress,  improvement,  change 
of  heart,  newness  of  life,  everlasting  growth,  forget- 
ting the  past  and  pressing  on  to  the  future.  The 
true  man,  therefore,  smitten  with  the  love  of  excel- 
lence, takes  care  not  to  live  so  poorly  to-day  as  he 
did  yesterday.  But  he  takes  advantage  of  the  gra- 
cious motive-powers  that  bear  him  onward,  of  the 
healthful  vigor  diffused  over  body  and  mind  by  the 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  321 

restorative  efficacy  of  sleep,  to  spring  forward  on  the 
career  of  an  efficient  and  Christian  life  with  all  his 
heart  and  soul  and  mind  and  strength.  Short-lived 
days,  fleeting  as  the  weaver's  shuttle,  become  thus 
to  him  so  many  strengthening  links  in  life's  massive 
chain,  binding  the  soul  again  and  again  to  its  duty 
and  its  destiny. 

The  blessing  of  the  day  depends  in  no  slight  de- 
gree on  the  manner  in  which  we  begin  it,  on  the 
key-note  of  the  morning  hour.  It  is  well  begun  by 
the  Almighty  Disposer.  He  has  glorified,  beautified, 
solemnized  its  coming.  He  has  again  spoken  the 
creative  word,  "  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  is  light." 
He  gives  us  a  new  world,  bathed  in  dew,  blushing 
with  the  dawn,  vocal  with  the  song  of  birds,  while 
clouds  of  vapor  and  smoke  rise  like  columns  of  in- 
cense from  hill  and  vale  and  human  homes  to  heaven. 
Fair  and  gracious  world  of  ours,  we  feel  like  saying, 
how  sad  and  strange  it  is  that  we  should  ever  forget 
that  this  is  a  Divine  handiwork,  or  that  we  should 
ever  abuse  such  royal  gifts  by  our  ingratitude  and 
disobedience  I 

But  we  may  take  a  hint  from  Providence,  and 
copy  its  glorious  beginning  of  a  day,  so  that  our  vir- 
tue may  not  find  its  emblem  in  the  early  dew  and 
the  morning  cloud.  Raised  up  as  from  the  dead,  re- 
stored to  consciousness  and  reason,  filled  with  new 
vital  forces,  soothed  and  refreshed  by  sleep,  and 
nourished  by  food,  it  would  seem  to  be  the  natural 
emotion  to  thank  the  Mighty  Benefactor  for  all  these 


BLSSSIXGS    OF    A   DAT. 

&VOIS.  Devotion  is  the  spontaDeons  ser- 
iriee  of  tbe  nMming.  To  invoke  the  guardian  care 
of  HieaTeii,and  to  bless  its  new  meicies,  is  trat  a  fit- 
ting oount^part  to  all  the  other  beauty  and  solem- 
nity and  hope  and  renewed  life  of  the  \irorid-  For 
prayer  is  morning  to  the  mind,  its  awaking  from  the 
tjkep  of  earth  to  be  oonsdoos  of  a  higher  life,  its 
fiesh  and  iuw^uiating  entrance  oo  a  superior  conise 
of  tbon^t  and  action.  Shall  the  birds  arise  and 
sutg  at  the  gate  of  beaTen,  and  man  feel  no  uplifting 
aeatiiiieBt  at  the  birth  ci  a  new  day  ?  How  appro- 
priate it  is^  when  the  dangers  of  the  night  are  passed, 
aad  those  of  the  day  are  all  unknown  and  imtried, 
tids  may  be  a  day  of  pain,  or  accident,  or  of 
or  ci  prospoity,  even  more  perilous  to  the 
or  of  fears  within  or  troubles  without, 
or  <if  the  deeeitfnl  lull  of  good  fortune,  or  of  disap- 
pointed aims,  or  of  unrequited  affection,  or  of  change, 
aad  certainly  a  day  ci  the  inevitable  earthly  vicissi- 
tude, and  steady  maieh  onwaid  to  the  great  Futu- 
liij,  how  fitting  and  true  an  act  to  bow  down  in 
adofation  and  snpi^ieation  before  the  Infi- 
and  LoTe,  and  to  feel  that  this,  too,  is 
of  the  chief  bleasings  d  the  day,  —  something 
to  be  thaaklid  fiv,  and  leei^pized  as  one  of  life's 
bcathom!    The  derotimial  poet  naturally  sings:  — 


THE    BLJBS8IK68   OF   A  DAT.  323 

«  Man, '  says  the  Psalmist,  «  goeth  forth  unto  his 
work  and  to  his  labor  until  ihe  evening."  Tint 
-work  and  labor,  the  heat  and  burden  of  tlie  daj, 
called,  in  the  external  and  fignradre  language  of  the 
elementary  dispensation,  "  a  curse,"  have  proTed  on 
long  trial,  and  in  the  wide  experience  of  a  iKradd,  to 
be  some  of  the  best  blessings  of  the  day.  Who  has 
the  pleasant  consciousness  of  being  useful?  The 
wortLcr.  Who  stores  up  the  rich  memories  d  maaj 
things  done  ?  The  worker.  Who  dee|is  sweedy  ? 
The  worker.  Who  relishes  his  food  more  than  the 
epicure  ?  The  hard  worker.  Who  enjoys  losore  ? 
He  who  has  used  his  time  so  industriously  that  he 
has  earned  a  right  to  be  idle.  Wlio  can 
the  full  measure  of  blessing  in  a  day,  but  he  who 
so  earnestly  pursued  its  opportunities  that  its ; 
are  to  him  as  gems,  and  its  hours  as  diamoods  ? 
Grod  has  sent  no  sup^^uous  hands  and  feet  and 
minds  and  hearts  into  his  active  vodd.  Hie  &et 
that  they  are  here  testifies  that  they  are  needed,  that 
they  are  responsible  forces,  and  that  if  tiiej  are  not 
poured  into  the  channels  of  useful  wcwk  of  some  de- 
scription, they  frustrate,  so  far  as  they  are  ooncemedy 
some  plan  of  mercy.  For  when  we  look  at  a  wil- 
demess,  a  morass,  a  river  unnavigated,  a  fiovest  mcnt, 
a  mine  unworked,  we  say,  H»e  is  a  deposit  of  ao 
much  human  idleness,  here  is  the  monument  of  a 
generation  of  slu^ards.  Heaven  knows  it  has  sent 
men  enough  into  the  world  to  irrigate  A&ica  as  a 
weU-wateied  garden,  and  dear  up  South   Amerira, 


324  THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 

and  make  it  into  fruitful  farms  and  happy  homes ; 
but  the  messengers  have  forgotten  their  mission,  and 
spent  their  time  and  energies  in  quarrelling  and 
fighting  with  one  another.  The  wonder  is  that  man- 
kind are  not  poorer  and  more  wretched  than  they  are, 
after  the  spendthrift  ways,  and  the  wild,  wasteful 
dissipations,  wars,  slaveries,  excesses  of  every  kind, 
with  which  they  have  "  carried  on  "  their  farm  of  the 
earth.  So,  too,  full  well  do  we  know  that  the  moral 
equipment  has  been  as  well  appointed  as  the  physi- 
cal, that  minds  enough  have  been  inspired  to  think, 
and  hearts  to  feel,  and  consciences  and  reasons  to 
judge,  and  that  every  degraded  nation  or  ignorant 
soul  is  a  higher  or  a  humbler  representative  of  some 
lurking  unfaithfulness  far  away  in  history.  The  bit- 
ter fruit  of  pauperism  and  crime  we  eat  to-day  was 
planted,  like  the  sturdy  old  English  oak,  five  hundred 
years  ago.  There  is  great  work  yet  to  be  done  on 
this  planet,  —  continents  to  be  reclaimed,  oceans  to 
be  navigated,  wild  elements  to  be  yoked  to  the  car 
of  human  progress,  acres  of  brains  to  be  tilled,  Au- 
gean stables  of  moral  filth  to  be  purified,  swarming 
multitudes  of  souls  to  be  touched  to  finer  spiritual 
issues,  vast  social  Saharas  to  be  clothed  with  ver- 
dure, new  and  grander  organizations  in  church  and 
state,  and  family,  and  art  and  labor  and  literature,  to 
be  formed,  that  shall  make  our  modern  homes,  and 
sanctuaries  and  schools,  galleries  and  crystal  pala- 
ces, seem  to  be  but  the  bungling  work  of  apprentices 
compared  with  the  productions  of  the  perfect  Master- 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  325 

workman.  The  past  history  of  our  race  has  its  rep- 
resentative in  the  night,  —  dreamy,  sleepy,  irrespon- 
sible, fearful,  often  riotous,  artificially  lighted,  addicted 
to  passion,  meteor-led  night.  The  ages  have  been 
dark  ages,  and  history  has  been  profane,  and  the 
earth  has  not  been  holy  land.  But  the  dayspring 
from  on  high  hath  visited  us,  and  the  future  is  to  be 
a  day  of  action,  usefulness,  progress,  as  the  past  has 
been  a  night  of  preparation,  dreams,  and  darkness. 

All  the  arrangements  and  structural  parts  of  a 
day  bear  with  positive  and  intentional  effect  on  hu- 
man culture  and  discipline.  The  mere  act  of  rising 
from  a  couch  of  repose  puts  our  nature  to  no  slight 
proof  of  self-denial.  Every  meal  brings  the  graces 
of  the  Christian  character  to  the  test.  The  varied 
spheres  of  household  duty,  the  providing  of  food  and 
clothing,  the  care  of  children  and  of  the  aged,  the 
acts  of  hospitality,  the  graces  of  entertainment,  visits 
and  calls,  the  thrice-spread  table,  the  thrice-gathered 
reunion,  the  family  talk,  the  daily  dialogues,  the  play 
of  affections,  sensibilities,  characters,  on  one  another, 
—  are  not  these  and  all  things  which  are  woven  into 
that  charmed  word,  home^  to  be  catalogued  in  the 
list  of  blessings  of  the  day  ?  Many  of  the  items  are 
insignificant,  and  we  make  small  account  of  them ; 
they  would  sell  for  nothing  in  the  market,  and  they 
cannot  be  transmitted  by  last  wills  and  testaments, 
but,  though  so  impalpable,  they  are  the  riches  of  the 
soul,  the  treasures  which  moth  and  rust  cannot  cor- 
rupt.    They  may  m2ike  but  little  impression  on  us 

28 


326 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 


now,  but  they  will  recur  to  memory  hereafter;  in  the 
monotony  of  a  voyage  at  sea,  in  a  distant  land,  in 
future  bereavements,  in  life's  dull  decline,  they  will 
come  back,  and  be  lived  over  again  ;  old  scenes,  old 
friends,  will  be  grouped  once  more  in  the  circle  of 
home,  in  the  light  of  morning  hope,  in  the  sober  eve's 
twilight,  —  quickeners  of  a  deeper  and  purer  love,  and 
prophetic  of  a  home  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

But  as  the  benefit  of  a  day  depends  much  upon 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  begun,  so  it  does  also  upon 
the  spirit  of  its  close.  Nature  here,  too,  gives  us 
significant  intimations.  The  fading  light,  the  setting 
sun,  the  gathering  shades,  are  suggestive  of  repose, 
calm  retrospect  of  the  past,  and  a  confiding  commit- 
ting of  one's  self  to  the  Guardian  of  the  night.  •  The 
morn  is  full  of  hope,  the  eve  is  the  hour  of  con- 
science. How  has  the  day's  plan  been  executed  ? 
What  have  we  done,  said,  thought,  felt,  during  these 
bright  and  responsible  hours  ?  What  has  been  the 
prevailing  tone  of  feeling ;  what  the  general  move- 
ment of  our  being  ?  No  change  can  now  be  made  ; 
what  has  been  done  is  done  for  once  and  for  aye. 
But  we  can  draw  wisdom  from  the  experience  of  a 
day,  and  the  habitual  review  of  our  conduct,  joined 
with  a  proper  sense  of  moral  responsibleness,  and 
reference  to  a  pure  spiritual  standard,  would  do 
much  to  steadily  elevate  the  character,  and  save  us 
from  the  miserable  self-dissatisfaction,  that  we  are 
good  for  nothing  either  to  ourselves  or  to  anybody 
else.     The  night  is  life's  pause  ;  the  day  is  life,  and 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY.  327 

it  should  be  true,  improving,  in  one  word.  Christian 
life.  Thus  only  can  it  be  truly  human  life,  for  to 
eat,  sleep,  walk,  breathe,  and  work  does  not  call  the 
whole  range  of  the  faculties  of  our  being  into  exer- 
cise. The  full  measure  and  meaning  of  a  day  of  our 
life  are  first  revealed  to  us  under  the  Christian  sys- 
tem, for  this  greatens,  dignifies,  perpetuates  all  that 
is  most  precious  in  the  roll  of  its  blessings.  It 
makes  the  earth  holy  by  relation  to  heaven,  time 
precious  by  its  antecedence  to  eternity,  and  man 
noble  by  his  connection  with  God.  It  assures  us 
that 

"  The  hoars  are  viewless  angels, 
That  still  go  gliding  by, 
And  bear  each  moment's  record  up 
To  Him  who  sits  on  high. 

"And  as  we  spend  each  minute 
That  God  to  us  hath  given, 
The  deedS  are  known  before  his  throne, 
The  tale  is  told  in  heaven." 

Nothing,  therefore,  can  sit  as  a  nobler  capital  on 
the  column  of  a  day  than  the  bowed  figure  of  devo- 
tion. Well  does  the  poet  sound  the  Oriental  call 
from  the  turrets  of  the  night ;  — 

"To  prayer !  for  the  glorious  sun  is  gone, 
And  the  gathering  darkness  of  night  comes  on ; 
Like  a  curtain  from  God's  kind  hand  it  flows, 
To  shade  the  couch  where  his  children  repose ; 
Then  kneel,  while  the  watching  stars  are  bright, 
And  give  your  last  thoughts  to  the  Guardian  of  night." 

Thus  conceived,  thus  used,  and  thus  concluded, 


328  THE    BLESSINGS    OF    A    DAY. 

the  blessing  of  the  day  will  be  complete.  And  then 
when  all  our  days  are  thus  numbered  and  finished, 
their  memories  will  not  rise  up  like  troubled  ghosts  to 
haunt  us,  but  they  will  come  back,  a  long  procession, 
and  bend  over  the  dying  pillow,  and  stand  around 
our  spirit  like  the  forms  of  angels,  sweet,  serene,  and 
holy,  and  gently  guard  us  through  the  dark  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death  to  the  blessed  regions  of  Ever- 
lasting Day. 


DISCOURSE    XIX 


CHRISTIANITY  A  WANT  OF  CIVILIZATION. 

WATCH   TE,   STAND   FAST    IN   THE   FAITH,   QUIT   TOU   LIKE   MEN,   BB 

STRONG.  —  1  Corinthians  xvi.  13. 

I  READ  ill  a  newspaper  the  other  day  this  para- 
graph :  "  A  young  lady,  aged  nineteen,  in  a  board- 
ing school  in  Massachusetts,  committed  suicide  last 
week  by  drowning  herself.  She  left  a  note,  stating 
the  cause  to  be  want  of  friends,  and  the  trials  of  life." 

It  led  to  a  train  of  reflections.  We  look  through 
a  keyhole  into  the  deep  heart-world.  Here  is  a 
tragedy  in  few  lines.  Here  is  a  biography,  which 
contains,  on  a  small  scale,  all  the  substantial  truth 
which  is  developed  on  the  immense  outline  of  the 
greatest  names  of  history.  And  how  pathetic  and 
heart-melting  it  is  I  What  a  face-to-face  glimpse  it 
yields  of  life  as  it  is,  perhaps  of  some  moods  of  our 
own  hearts  I  For  it  is  a  remark  of  some  author,  that 
there  is  probably  no  one  that  did  not  at  some  time 
meditate  the  same  act.  How  much  more  is  going 
on  in  the  human  heart  oftentimes  than  we  suspect! 
What  a  glowing  world  of  fire,  a  central  conflagra- 

28* 


330       CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

tion,  buried  in  seemingly  cold  natures !  Or  what 
deep  interiors,  fountains  of  life  welling  up  with 
ceaseless  flow !  There  are  more  things  in  man  than 
are  dreamt  of  in  our  superficial  materialistic  philos- 
ophy. There  is  a  whole  cluster  of  lessons  suggested 
by  the  hasty  glance  which  we  get  into  the  human 
heart  in  these  few  words,  — "  want  of  friends,  and 
the  trials  of  life." 

Many  mistake,  and  think  themselves  alone  in  the 
world,  when  they  have  many  warm  friends.  The 
young  in  their  flush  of  impatience  sometimes  accuse 
the  world  of  coldness,  when  the  charge  is  a  fiction, 
not  a  fact.  If  they  falter  or  fall,  how  many  hearts 
are  wrung  with  anguish  of  which  they  think  not ! 
It  is  an  ill  habit  to  suspect  our  friends,  that  they  are 
not  friends  ;  —  nothing  will  sooner  chill  their  love  to 
us  than  such  suspicions.  Faith  is  a  condition  as 
necessary  to  friendship  as  to  religion.  Let  us  be 
thankful  for  friends.  Let  us  ever  believe  that  we  have 
far  more  than  we  deserve.  Instead  of  murmuring 
that  we  are  not  more  loved,  cared  for,  tenderly  nur- 
tured, let  us  remember  how  many  are  desolate  in  the 
earth,  —  how  unworthy  we  often  prove  ourselves  of 
the  least  of  God's  favors,  and  especially  of  that  rich- 
est, dearest,  most  exhilarating  of  all  life's  cordials  and 
elixirs,  love,  love,  love ! 

,  Then  "  the  trials  of  life,"  —  bitter  and  hard  they 
often  are ;  —  it  is  no  child's,  play  we  are  set  at  in  this 
world  ;  the  game  is  Olympic,  tragic,  celestial.  But 
they  have  been  the  common  lot.     Let  us  not  sup- 


CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION.       331 

pose  our  case  a  singular  or  strange  one.     We  drink 
the  cup  mixed  for  all.     Let  us  not  be  cravens  or 
cowards.     The  harder  the  battle,  the  more  noble  the 
victory.     An  unutterable  pathos  does  indeed  over- 
flow the  heart  and  eyes,  when  we  reflect  on  all  men 
have  to  suffer  here,  —  the  pain  of  wounds  and  dis- 
eases, the  shocks  of  calamity,  the  bereavement  of 
friends,  the  loss  of  property,  the  persecutions  of  the 
wicked,  the  insolence  of  the  proud  and  powerful,  the 
absence  of  a  true  faith,  the  misery  of  evil  habits,  the 
want  of  sympathy  and  appreciation,  the   dulness  of 
men's  occupations,  the  slavery  to  material  interests, 
—  one  man  being  the  key  to  a  money-safe,  another 
a  spoke  in  some  machine,  another  a  convenience  in 
some  boat  or  car,  another  a  hand,  or  even  a  finger  or 
foot,  in  some  field,  vineyard,  or  garden,  —  the  im- 
mortal subject  to  the  accidents  of  his  condition, — 
the  angel  harnessed  to  a  dray.     But  to  all  this  cata- 
logue it  is  answer  enough,  that  the  discipline  is  ap- 
pointed ;  it  is  no  mistake,  no  malice,  no  chance.     It 
is  good  to  be  afflicted,  it  is  good  to  bear  the   yoke. 
We  learn,  as  a  greater  did,  obedience  by  the  things 
we  suffer,  —  the  end  is  not  now,  —  the  end  is  far 
hence,  hidden  high   up  in   heaven,  there  is  no  end, 
there  is  eternal  life  to  come.     And  the  disciple  is  not 
greater  than  his  Master. 

But  we  may  say  this,  —  that  with  this  deep  yearn- 
ing of  affection  on  one  side  —  the  hunger  of  the 
heart  —  ever  crying,  Give,  give!  and  on  the  other 
this  keen,  close,  and  fiery  trial,  —  dull  pain,  deep 


332         CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

anguish,  unrest,  or  dissatisfaction,  —  we  see  the  ne- 
cessity of  more  than  intellectual  refinement,  or  art, 
or  science,  or  the  most  graceful  civilization.  So  that 
the  farther  the  world  advances  in  these  things,  in- 
stead of  being  able  to  do  without  a  faith  in  God,  and 
a  hope  in  Christ,  it  wants  more  than  ever  the  balsam 
of  the  cross.  It  is  this  awakened  humanity  that  es- 
pecially and  imperatively  needs  God.  The  more  it 
is  called  to  life,  the  more  it  wants  to  be  brought  into 
living  union  with  the  source  of  true  life.  All  this 
unfolding  of  the  germs  of  the  inner  nature  presents 
but  a  larger  surface  for  injury,  when  we  are  not 
guarded  and  guided  by  the  Highest.  There  is  a 
broader  and  a  quicker  nerve  to  suffer,  a  deeper  capa- 
city to  be  miserable,  developed  by  every  stage  of 
progress,  and  therefore  an  unceasing  call  that,  with  the 
exposure,  there  should  come  the  shield ;  with  the  un- 
rolling of  the  scroll  of  life,  the  name  of  God  should 
be  found  written,  clear  and  bright,  at  every  point  of 
advancement. 

But  perhaps  there  is  no  period  w^hen  religious  faith 
is  more  necessary  than  in  youth,  when  the  great 
secret  of  life  first  bursts  on  the  soul,  and  we  learn 
that  our  being  here  must  be  a  battle.  The  general 
opinion,  I  know,  is  otherwise,  —  that  religion  is  for  old 
age,  for  the  sick-room,  for  the  bed  of  death  ;  but  with 
all  its  conceded  need  and  adaptation  to  such  scenes, 
it  is  yet  true,  that  to  the  young  heart,  first  stricken, 
first  alive  to  life  as  it  is,  first  awaking  to  the  stern 
and  the  grand  realities  by  which  it  is  surrounded,  no 


CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION.         333 

ministration  is  so  urgently  demanded  as  that  of  a 
cheerful,  winning,  hopeful,  strengthening  faith,  — 
one  that  will  not  darken  life  with  despair,  or  seat  a 
God  of  wrath  on  the  throne  of  the  universe,  or  mys- 
tify and  perplex  the  heart  with  more  doubts  than  it 
can  solve,  —  but  a  calm,  clear,  practical,  working 
faith,  which  will  fill  the  soul  with  the  love  of  God 
"  in  the  want  of  friends,"  and  nerve  the  heart  to  bear 
"  the  trials  of  life  "  when  they  press  hardest.  This 
faith,  instead  of  being  a  damper  on  the  heart,  a 
chill  to  any  of  life's  natural  or  innocent  joys,  is  the 
heightener,  the  justifier  of  them  all.  It  makes  the 
law  of  life,  the  law  of  love.  It  makes  us  patient 
under  our  various  trials,  by  showing  us  that  they  are 
an  education,  and  it  animates-  us  to  strive  for  a 
victory  which  is  worth  more  than  any  worldly  suc- 
cess. It  is  in  the  "  school,"  in  the  college,  in  the 
first  developments  of  this  wondrous  nature  of  ours, 
God-given  and  heaven-destined,  that  the  trial  often 
bears  hardest,  and  that  despair  is  liable  to  settle  down 
upon  the  young  soul.  Then  the  youth  reads  Byron, 
and  falls  into  a  misanthropic  habit.  Things  are  seen 
through  a  false  medium.  Friends  are  thought  to  be 
few,  and  those  few  hypocrites;  the  contest  is  felt 
to  be  hard,  and  the  impatient  spirit  is  ready  to  cut 
the  Gordian  knot  by  one  desperate  stroke,  instead 
of  carefully  setting  to  work  to  untie  it.  Passion  is 
strong,  and  principle  is  deficient.  The  spirit  is  will- 
ing, but  the  flesh  is  weak.  What  shall  save,  bless, 
elevate,  at  the  crisis  when  the  first  grapple  between 


334         CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

the  mortal  and  the  immortal  takes  place,  and  the 
question  is  first  put,  Which  will  we  serve,  good  or 
evil,  God  or  the  world  ?  The  mild,  humane,  attrac- 
tive, admonitory  faith  of  Christ,  —  this  is  a  divine 
remedy  for  a  human  necessity, — the  prescription  of 
a  physician  who  cannot  err,  of  a  medicine  which 
cannot  fail  to  cure. 

This  great  problem  of  life  is  presented  to  every 
new-comer  afresh,  and  he  has  to  solve  it  with  such 
aids  as  he  can.  The  experience  of  those  who  have 
gone  before  is  valuable,  but  it  cannot  avail  until  it  is 
made  his  experience,  until  it  is  incorporated  into  his 
own  mental  and  moral  system.  Every  one  has  to 
learn  his  letters  anew  in  the  alphabet  of  this  mystic 
lore  of  life.  But  though  we  can  very  imperfectly 
transfer  this  knowledge  from  one  to  another  bodily, 
yet  the  inspiriting  and  electric  power  of  example  is 
vast.  Especially  the  young,  who  by  their  condition 
are  imitative,  and  who  look  to  see  how  others  stem 
the  tide,  are  capable  of  being  essentially  benefited 
by  the  animating  success  of  those  who  have  been 
called  to  suffer  and  toil,  and  who  have  won  the  day. 

In  proportion,  too,  as  the  physical  resources  of  the 
world  are  developed,  must  the  spiritual  be  advanced 
to  keep  an  even  pace.  The  glory  of  an  age  is  not 
gold  or  steam,  but  men,  true  and  noble  men,  whom 
gold  and  steam,  and  all  science  and  art,  have  helped 
to  form  and  color.  Population  is  not  the  great  good, 
but  souls  that  are  souls.  If  we  rest  supremely  on 
this  material  prosperity,  we  shall  grow  coarser  as  we 


CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION.         335 

grow  larger,  grope  and  grovel  deeper  in  the  earth 
as  we  multiply,  and  present  a  type  of  sordidness  and 
grossness  new  and  monstrous  in  the  history  of  man. 

Never,  we  believe,  was  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
in  its  simplicity  and  its  power,  more  needed  than 
here  and  now.  The  very  action  in  every  other  direc- 
tion requires  more  life  and  action  here.  The  young 
need  this  faith,  that  the  sharp  collision  with  life's 
aches  and  ills  may  not  throw  them  into  misanthropy 
or  despair ;  the  strong  need  it,  that  mercy  may  mingle 
with  energy,  and  that  strength  may  not  grow  tyran- 
nous ;  and  the  prosperous  need  it,  that  their  ease  and 
abundance  may  not  peril  their  better  life,  and  make 
shipwreck  of  faith  and  a  good  conscience. 

There  has  been  a  foolish  fear  in  some  quarters, 
that  the  world  was  going  to  outgrow  the  Gospel,  — 
that  the  improvements  of  civilization  would  super- 
sede the  powers  of  faith,  —  that  the  press  would 
make  the  pulpit  obsolete,  and  the  lyceum  and  lecture 
take  the  place  of  the  church  and  sermon.  But  the 
symptoms  do  not  look  that  way.  The  increase  of 
all  the  agencies  of  reading,  speaking,  printing,  trav- 
elling, are  just  as  available  to  the  preacher  as  to  the 
politician,  to  the  colporteur  as  to  the  merchant. 
The  Bible  never  has  had  so  wide  a  circulation  among 
men  as  within  the  last  twenty  years.  Its  principles 
of  philanthropy  never  have  been  so  earnestly  carried 
out  in  practice,  nor  its  reformations  urged  with  such 
success.  The  voluntary  system  proves  more  effect- 
ual than  compulsion,  and  love  to  be  more  powerful 


336         CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

than  fear.  If  creeds  and  theologies  and  systems  are 
dying,  it  is  that  the  spirit  of  Christianity  may  more 
than  ever  spread  itself  and  saturate  society. 

•  But  the  single  strong  point  is,  that  the  original 
heart  of  man  is  ever  the  same,  and  its  wants  are  the 
same.  Costumes  and  civilizations  may  change,  but 
the  essence  abides  one  and  unalterable.  The  heart 
cries  out  for  God.  Man  is  in  search  after  his  Father, 
—  after  good,  after  God.  He  may  have  art,  but  that 
cannot  satisfy  him.  Italy  stands  for  art,  and  Italy 
is  one  of  the  most  degraded  and  the  most  wretched 
countries.  He  may  have  science,  but  science  can- 
not satisfy  him.  France  is  famed  for  science,  but 
without  God,  and  faith  in  him  and  his  Son,  it  has 
no  eye  to  see,  no  heart  to  feel,  the  greatest  realities. 
He  may  have  literature,  but  literature  cannot  suffice. 
Germany  is  distinguished  for  its  literature,  but  its 
condition  is  far  from  a  happy  one,  its  future  as  far 
from  a  hopeful  one.  He  may  have  power  and 
wealth,  but  power  and  wealth  cannot  answer  the 
claims  of  human  nature.  England  has  these,  but 
how  far  is  England  from  health  and  peace,  and  true 
life  ?  He  may  have  freedom,  but  freedom  alone  is 
not  the  summum  bonum  of  life.  America  has  freedom, 
but  here,  too,  man  is  wayward  and  wretched.  He 
is  never  satisfied.  His  mind  tosses  like  the  troubled 
deep,  casting  up  mire  and  dirt.  In  all  these  things 
there  is  progress,  art,  science,  literature,  power, 
wealth,  freedom, —  or,  in  a  word,  civilization,  —  but 
not  one  or  all  of  these  can  give  us  the  key  of  life, 


CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION.         337 

show  US  what  is  everlastingly  good,  and  satisfy  the 
cravings  of  a  nature  never  to  perish.  We  shall  still 
be  the  victims  of  circumstances,  unless  we  have  some- 
thing superior  to  these  earthly  instruments.  The 
spiritual  claims  its  birthright,  —  the  immortal  rises 
and  seeks  alliance  with  its  Author.  And  only 
when  man  ceases  to  carry  about  a  frail  body  and  a 
soaring  spirit,  —  one  the  subject  of  trials,  and  the 
other  the  inlet  of  hopes,  —  one  tying  him  to  the  sod, 
and  the  other  attracting  him  to  the  sky,  —  then,  and 
not  till  then,  can  he  cease  to  yearn  after  his  best 
friend  and  guide. 

The  deep  disease  of  human  nature  is  sin.  And 
for  that  disease,  however  it  comes,  original  or  ac- 
quired, generic  or  personal,  slight  or  inveterate,  there 
is  no  remedy  but  of  the  same  kind,  a  moral  remedy, 
the  Gospel.  There  is  a  physical  sin,  and  that  must 
be  cured  by  physical  obedience  and  other  means ; 
there  is  an  intellectual  wickedness,  and  that  is  only 
curable  by  intellectual  medicines,  which  are  light, 
intelligence,  and  wisdom,  or  knowledge  ripened; 
there  is  spiritual  corruption,  and  that  can  only  be 
curable  or  manageable  by  means  of  its  own  na- 
ture, that  is,  spiritual,  super-sensuous,  super-mental, 
-^  means  and  motives  and  powers  of  another  sphere 
and  another  potency.  Such  is  the  faith  of  Christ. 
It  is  the  climate  to  which  if  you  send  the  spiritual 
invalid,  he  inhales  new  life  and  health  at  every  breath. 
He  cannot  tell  how  he  is  cured,  but  he  is  cured.  The 
wondrous  atmosphere,  so  soft  and"  pure  and  balmy 

29 


338         CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

and  invigorating,  in  which  he  is  wrapped,  and  which 
enters  every  pore  of  his  system,  goes  to  the  sickly 
part,  whatever  it  be,  and  searches  and;  tents  it,  and 
soothes  what  needs  soothing,  and  quickens  what 
needs  quickening,  and  strengthens  and  heals  every- 
where. Many  things  are  good  for  us,  but  a  faith  in 
God  and  Christ  is  essential.  Many  things  grace 
life,  add  a  pleasure  here,  enhance  one  there  ;  this 
stands  as  the  bread  which  we  must  have  or  die,  —  the 
pillar  of  our  being,  without  which  we  are  shaken  and 
overturned,  —  the  tie  which  binds  us  to  the  universe 
and  its  Author ;  if  it  is  broken,  we  wander,  exiles, 
orphans,  fugitives.  Then  we  think  we  have  no 
friends,  —  then  the  trials  of  life  are  too  hard.  We 
are  sullen,  or  we  are  mad,  reckless,  or  stupid,  and  are 
ready  for  any  act,  or  if  we  are  restrained  from  overt 
wrong-doing  to  ourselves  or  others,  we  yet  lose  the 
charm  and  the  zest  of  life  in  being  cut  off  voluntarily 
from  that  life  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  We 
cannot  keep  too  near  our  Heavenly  Father,  or  receive 
with  too  earnest  a  heart  his  lessons  and  admonitions, 
or  pray  to  him  with  too  warm  and  trusting  a  love. 
And  the  more  active  our  life,  the  more  we  need  re- 
ligion to  direct  that  action  aright.  The  more  studi- 
ous we  are,  and  the  more  we  know,  the  more  should 
we  trust,  the  more  should  we  love,  or  wisdom  will  be 
a  fatal  gift,  and  study  will  only  multiply  our  sorrows. 
If  I  were  to  single  out  of  all  men  desire  and  most 
labor  for  the  one  preeminent  good,  it  would  be  a 
living  and  childlike  trust  in   God  through    Christ. 


CHRISTIANITY    A    WANT    OF    CIVILIZATION.        339 

This  is  a  heart-possession,  which  cannot  be  destroyed 
by  flood  or  fire.  This  is  a  genitis  of  good,  a  rea- 
son and  a  wisdom,  which  no  insanity  can  craze. 
When  all  else  is  dark,  this  will  be  a  light  within,  and 
how  great  will  be  that  light  I  When  all  else  is  cold, 
this  will  be  a  warmth  of  the  soul  which  will  not  be 
chilled.  Blessed  faith  of  the  ages,  —  faith  of  mar- 
tyrs and  confessors  and  apostles  !  Come  and  abide 
in  our  hearts,  and  then  we  shall  be  strong,  then  we 
shall  quit  ourselves  like  men.  We  shall  not  yield  to 
life's  trials,  and  we  shall  not  be  carried  captive  by  its 
temptations.  It  is  the  faith  to  live  by,  and  it  is  the 
faith  to  die  by.  No  age  needs  such  a  simple  faith 
more  than  this.  No  country  more  than  this  ago- 
nizes and  strives  to  reach  this  confiding  faith.  Do  we 
not  hear  the  daily  cry  ascending  from  the  depths  of 
these  stricken,  tempted,  and  restless  hearts  of  ours. 
Have  faith  in  God !  Have  faith  in  Christ !  Have 
faith  in  Immortality  I 


DISCOURSE   XX 


RELIGION  A  NECESSITY. 

FOR    IT    IS    NOT   A    VAIN    THING    FOR    TOF ;   BECAUSE    IT    IS    TOUR 

LIFE.  — Deuteronomy  xxxii.  47. 

Religion  is  not  a  luxury,  but  a  necessity  of  our 
being.  It  is  not  a  vain  service,  because  it  is  our  life. 
Immersed  as  men  are  in  the  world,  and  conversant 
with  tangible  objects  and  material  interests,  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  them  to  feel  this  reality  and  absolute  neces- 
sity of  religion  for  their  best  life.  They  are  too 
prone  to  look  upon  it,  at  least  in  its  higher  exercises 
and  experiences,  as  something  unreal,  unnatural,  and 
fanatical.  They  would  be  likely  to  call  a  man  really 
in  earnest  upon  the  subject,  and  who  devoted  his 
time,  talents,  and  property  wholly  to  it,  an  enthu- 
siast. They  suspect  it  is  a  superficial  fear,  or  unreal 
superstition,  not  the  normal  and  most  healthy  con- 
dition of  the  human  mind.  They  call  it  an  imposi- 
tion of  priestcraft,  a  device  of  the  state  to  keep  peo- 
ple in  awe,  and  make  them  tame  and  subservient  to 
the  powers  that  be.  It  is  a  great  thing,  therefore,  to 
vindicate  the  necessity  of  religion,  to  take  it  out  of 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY.  341 

the  class  of  follies  and  chimeras,  and  enthrone  it 
among  the  substantial  interests  of  life,  and  the  high- 
est of  them  all. 

For  there  has  been  but  too  much  color  given  to 
the  presumption  that  religion  was  not  deeply  ground- 
ed and  inlaid  in  our  nature,  but  was  a  gift  from  with- 
out, a  factitious  culture  and  experience  superinduced 
upon  it,  not  the  true  working  of  the  inmost  being 
with  all  its  powers.  For  religion  has  been  offered  to 
man  too  much  as  a  strange,  unnatural,  and  special 
thing,  not  as  the  real  light  of  life.  It  has  been  envel- 
oped in  mystery,  surrounded  by  a  formidable  array 
of  pains  and  penalties,  inculcated  as  supernatural, 
not  only  in  the  sanction  and  revelation  of  its  truths, 
but  in  their  incorporation  and  assimilation  to  the 
soul.  Some  of  the  doctrines  taught  have  been  such 
that  reason  stood  aghast  at  them  ;  and  many  of  the 
observances  and  ceremonies  have  led  sober  and 
rational  people  to  condemn  without  discrimination 
the  whole  system  as  silly  and  absurd.  The  weaker, 
and  not  the  stronger  minds,  are  alleged  to  be  the  first 
to  adopt  it.  Too  many  persecutions  have,  it  is  said, 
been  enacted  in  its  name  to  allow  it  to  be  the  cause 
of  humanity,  and  too  many  pious  frauds  perpetrated 
to  give  it  the  prestige  of  honesty.  The  Church  is 
rent  into  a  thousand  fragments,  and  which  shall  we 
believe  as  true?  Each  claims  an  almost  infallible 
superiority  to  itself,  and  condemns  the  rest,  and  will 
not  a  wise  man  end  by  discarding  the  whole  ? 

These  may  be  the  declared  sentiments  of  but  a 

29* 


342  RELIGION    A    NECESSITY. 

few  bold  freethinkers,  but  are  they  not  the  tacit  opin- 
ions of  many  in  the  community  ?     Do  they  not  con- 
stitute a  certain  unbelieving  posture  of  mind  in  great 
numbers,  taking  out  of  them  all  heart  and  life  for 
the  duties  and  services  of  our  most  holy  faith  ?     It 
becomes  a  point  of  fancy,  not  of  duty ;  a  thing  to  be 
decided  by  the  caprices  of  inclination,  not  the  law  of 
truth.     In  this  state  of  things,  what  a  vast  amount 
of  the  fire  of  youth,  the  strength  of  manhood,  and 
the  wisdom  of  age  is  lost  to  the  cause  of  Christ  and 
the   Church,  because  that  cause  is  not  associated 
with  the  necessities  and  obligations  and  highest  in- 
terests of   our   nature,  condition,   and    destiny,   as 
much  as  anything  else  men  are  concerned  with,  — 
art,  politics,  literature,  business,  —  yea,  far  more  and 
above  all,  as  the  central,  chief  pillar  and  prop  of  the 
temple  of  life !     Men  rush  with  eagerness  to  the  ex- 
change, but  realize  in  going  to  church  Shakespeare's 
description  of  the  boy, 

"  Creeping  like  snail 
Unwillingly  to  school." 

They  are  punctual  at  the  party,  or  the  ball,  but  late 
at  worship.  They  engage  with  zest  and  despatch  in 
the  smallest  prospect  that  opens  for  making  money  ; 
but  if  called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  Sunday  school, 
or  in  church  affairs,  why,  that  is  altogether  another 
matter ;  they  have  no  time  for  those  things. 

Therefore,  both  for  the  settlement  of  the  mind  and 
for  the  practical  performance  of  religious  duty,  it  is 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY.  343 

the  first  thing  to  be  done  to  create  in  men  a  belief 
that  reh'gion  is  not  a  manufactured  want,  but  a  natu- 
ral necessity  of  our  being ;  that,  instead  of  its  being  an 
innate  grace  of  temperament  and  constitution,  which, 
like  genius,  some  have  and  others  have  not,  and 
many  do  without,  it  is  the  bread  of  life  to  all.  No 
man  can  do  without  it  well.  No  man  can  be  living  in 
irreligion  without  daily  violations  and  injuries  done 
to  himself,  which  he  will  some  time  feel  most  sensibly, 
even  as  he  feels  the  otoer  trespasses  upon  the  laws 
of  his  constitution,  in  gout,  dyspepsia,  consumption, 
perhaps  long  deferred,  but  surely  coming  at  last.  So 
must  he  —  it  is  the  emphatic  word  of  Scripture, 
and  it  is  the  testimony  of  experience  —  who  sows  to 
the  flesh,  and  gives  no  scope  and  culture  to  the 
higher  part  of  his  nature,  finally  of  the  flesh  reap 
corruption.  The  clear-sighted  wisdom  of  Moses  de- 
tected the  fact,  that  what  men  were  so  prone  to  neg- 
lect or  despise  was  not  a  vain  thing  to  them,  but 
their  life. 

The  reality  and  necessity  of  this  divine  sentiment 
and  service  of  our  being  are  capable  of  being  inferred 
and  illustrated  by  three  independent  lines  and  sources 
of  evidence,  the  Nature  of  Man,  the  Condition  of 
Man,  and  the  Destiny  of  Man. 

1.  The  Nature  of  Man  bears  unequivocal  testi- 
mony to  the  necessity  of  religion.  The  current  the- 
ology, making  man  a  totally  spoiled  and  depraved 
creation  of  God,  and  conversion  a  wholly  supernat- 
ural work,  would  seem  to  tell  a  different  story  ;  but 


344  RELIGION    A    NECESSITY. 

it  does  equal  injustice  to  man  and  injury  to  the  Gos- 
pel by  such  representations.  Man  is  as  well  made 
and  natured  as  the  rest  of  the  creation.  Adam  and 
Eve  fell  as  easily  at  the  touch  of  the  first  temptation 
as  we  fall.  Much  evil  and  sin,  which  theologians 
morbidly  exaggerate,  are  but  imperfection,  youth, 
finiteness,  ignorance.  No  man  knows  history  or  me- 
chanics at  first.  No  man  can  practise  virtue  without 
much  learning.  He  must,  from  the  very  fact  that  he 
is  finite,  and  not  infinite,  catch  many  falls  in  his  at- 
tempts to  walk  spiritually,  as  he  does  in  trying  to 
walk  physically.  But  this  is  no  proof  of  the  little, 
but  of  the  great,  need  of  religion  to  him.  Religion 
is  natural ;  irreligion  is  unnatural,  unreal.  "  In  scep- 
ticism," said  Goethe,  "  is  no  good  thing."  Religion 
is  a  later  development,  as  wisdom  in  general  is,  but 
just  as  normal  as  any  other  manifestation  of  our 
nature,  art,  or  invention,  or  calling  of  life.  All  the 
elements  are  in  man.  Thus  he  naturally  believes. 
He  may  not  always  believe  alike,  —  sometimes  in 
Boodh,  sometimes  in  Moses,  in  Mahomet,  or  in 
Christ, —  but  uniformly  he  has  faith  in  something. 
Thus,  too,  he  naturally  makes  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong ;  his  decisions  on  these  points  may  not 
always  be  coincident  in  every  nature,  and  under  dif- 
ferent systems  of  culture.  In  Sparta  it  is  one  set  of 
things,  and  in  England  another  set  of  things,  that  is 
wrong  or  right.  But  that  difference  does  not  mili- 
tate against  the  fact  of  a  moral  sense,  for  no  people 
has  yet  been  found  sunk  so  low  that  they  do  not 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY.  345 

make  the  distinction  somewhere^  thus  showing  the 
presence  and  action  of  conscience.  So  in  regard  to 
the  future,  hope,  aspiration,  anticipation,  work  in  all 
human  bosoms  in  different  degrees  of  intensity,  and 
towards  varying  ends  and  objects  in  the  boundless 
future,  but  always,  everywhere,  towards  some  ends, 
towards  some  high  ideal,  throned  and  veiled  by  the 
cloud-curtain  of  the  future.  These  conclusions  as 
to  the  existence  of  a  religious  nature  are  so  invaria- 
ble, that  mankind  grow  pale  with  wonder  and  fear, 
as  at  some  monstrous  prodigy,  when  they  see  a 
whole  nation  turning  infidel,  and  framing  scepticism 
into  a  law,  as  France  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of  do- 
ing fifty  years  ago ;  for  all  nations  and  tribes  have  a 
religion  ;  all  have  the  terms,  clearer  or  obscurer,  of 
the  leading  religious  data,  or  elements,  God  and 
the  soul,  and  all  believe  in  some  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments.  This  is  the  offshoot  of 
what  is  in  man,  all  men,  —  in  human  nature.  To  be 
sure,  this  finer  nature,  seeking  relationship  and  com- 
munion with  the  true,  the  right,  the  high,  and  the 
imperishable,  is  often,  in  nations  and  in  individuals, 
overgrown  by  "  weeds  of  worldly  care,"  corrupted  by 
customs  and  laws,  tyrannized  over  by  priestcraft  and 
kingcraft,  and  buried  in  the  fossil  habits  of  sense  and 
sin.  But  there  it  is,  indestructible  by  all  the  floods 
to  drown,  or  fires  to  burn,  —  a  germ  of  infinite  being. 
Even  where  there  is  no  clear  flame,  the  smoke  says 
there  is  fire  underneath.  The  Hindoo,  making  his  of- 
fering of  rice  to  the  Ganges,  testifies  to  the  reality  of 


346  RELIGION    A   NECESSITY. 

religion  no  less  than  the  Christian  mother,  offering  her 
child  at  the  font  of  baptism  to  Jesus  and  the  Father. 

The  notion  that  man  is  not  essentially  a  religious 
being  is  met  and  confuted  by  all  the  facts  of  history. 
Not  a  clime  or  country  but  has  had  its  sacred  places, 
not  a  hill  but  has  been  crowned  with  an  altar.  No 
city  of  men  that  has  not  some  heaven-uplifted  spire, 
tower,  pyramid,  pagoda,  temple,  crescent,  cross, — 
pointing  with  steady  finger  into  the  heavens,  and 
saying,  There  is  God,  there  is  glory  and  bliss  and 
immortality.  Indeed,  how  long  could  any  city  hold 
together,  that  was  not  cemented  by  something  more 
than  earthly  lime  and  mortar,  that  was  not  holden 
by  the  strong  bonds  of  faith,  and  belief  in  unseen  re- 
alities, and  calls  upon  eternal  powers  ? 

As  believers  in  a  liberal  theology,  we  think  great 
harm  has  been  done  by  the  opposite  system  in  rep- 
resenting religion  as  in  one  sense  alien,  as  not 
springing  from  the  depths  of  the  human  constitu- 
tion, but  something  foreign  engrafted  upon  it.  For 
it  is  next  door  to  giving  the  impression  that  it  is  un- 
necessary, not  the  only  true,  legitimate,  and  happy 
life  of  a  human  being.  It  leads  men  to  wait  till 
they  get  religion  from  without,  as  it  is  phrased,  does 
not  urge  them  to  grow  it  from  within,  from  those  vital 
seeds  which  have  been  implanted  by  the  Creator. 
It  lulls  them  to  remain  in  sin  until  they  are  specially 
converted,  not  to  feel  that  they  have  religious  duties 
every  day,  as  much  as  to  their  families  or  their  coun- 
try.    And  then,  too,  it  does  the  additional  mischief, 


RELIGION   A   NECESSITY. 


347 


that,  when  they  are  converted,  they  look  upon  re- 
ligion all  their  lives  long,  not  as  a  clearly  natural 
and  divinely  constituted  growth  and  perfection  of 
themselves,  as  they  were  planned  and  fabricated  by 
the  great  Artist  and  Artificer,  but  as  an  excrescence, 
a  miraculous  grace,  a  mantle  like  Elijah's  dropped 
from  heaven,  not  the  customary  garb  of  life,  woven 
by  mortal  fingers,  and  to  be  worn  and  kept  as  the 
lawful  and  appropriate  garment  of  the  soul,  good  for 
every-day  wear,  but  also  to  shine,  spotless  and  white 
as  the  robe  of  righteousness,  in  higher  worlds. 

Banish  for  ever,  my  brethren,  from  your  minds, 
the  superficial  error,  that  you  can  do  without  this 
higher  culture  and  superior  state  of  your  nature; 
that  it  is  well  to  talk  about  it  as  a  fine,  beautiful, 
or  poetical  hing ;  that  it  is  good  to  build  church- 
es, and  support  ministers,  and  comfort  the  poor, 
and  soothe  the  dying,  and  keep  the  world  in  order 
generally,  but  not  solid,  essential,  necessary,  —  a 
fixed,  eternal  fact,  rooted  in  us  as  the  granite  moun- 
tains are  rooted  in  the  earth,  and  going  down  to  the 
centre.  For  a  cry  comes  up  to  a  listening  and  rev- 
erent ear,  from  every  part  of  this  complex  and 
wonderful  nature  of  ours,  saying.  Religion  is  true  and 
indispensable.  Reason  speaks  it  in  its  yearning 
after  absolute  truth.  Conscience  whispers  it  with 
the  still,  small  voice,  which  can  grow  to  thunder- 
tones  of  terrible  remorse  when  outraged.  Love 
sighs  ever  upwards  from  this  beating  heart,  and 
craves  —  O  with  what  irrepressible  desires !  —  the  sure 


348  RELIGION    A    NECESSITY. 

and  undeceiving  and  all-glorious  beauty,  holiness, 
and  perfection.  Aspiration  retires  disgusted  from 
the  richest  banquet  earth  can  spread,  and  climbs 
heavenward  by  the  emblems  of  the  evening  star 
and  sunset  cloud ;  and  by  the  glory  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  seen  by  the  eye  of  faith,  to  be  seated  above 
sun  and  star  on  a  more  transcendent  height  of 
power  and  loveliness.  O,  never  be  guilty  of  dis- 
gracing your  own  nature  and  self  so  much,  as  to 
think  that  it  has  no  higher  being  than  this  one  of 
time,  and  that  its  thirst  for  an  eternal  good  can  be 
slaked  by  the  broken  cisterns  of  earth  ! 

2.  The  Condition  of  Man  corroborates  the  view 
drawn  from  his  nature ;  for  his  condition  is  his 
nature  in  progression,  in  continuity.  If  we  go  over 
the  catalogue  of  items  of  this  condition,  from  the 
time  of  his  lying  helpless  in  the  cradle  till  he  lies 
helpless  again  in  the  coffin,  w^e  trace  an  unbroken 
line  of  religious  wants.  It  is  a  great  and  con- 
tinual hunger.  For  at  every  point,  at  every  time, 
and  under  every  combination  and  atmosphere  of 
surrounding  circumstances,  we  detect  the  demand 
for  that  peculiar  quantity  and  unknown  value  with- 
out which  we  cannot  work  the  equation  of  life 
aright,  or  solve  with  certainty  its  great  problem. 
Human  life,  for  instance,  is  a  condition  of  forma- 
tion, growth,  education,  and  yet  we  see  at  once,  that, 
if  this  process  is  not  carried  on  according  to  the 
primal  principles  which  are  involved  in  the  plan  of 
the  Chief  Husbandman,  w^e  shall  have  crude  wind- 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY.  349 

falls,  and  stunted  growths,  not  the  golden  fruit. 
Human  life  is  a  state  of  exposure  to  great  and  try- 
ing temptations,  numerous,  insidious,  often  sudden, 
and  mysterious,  springing  from  various  parts  of  our 
nature,  sometimes  from  the  most  godlike,  but  never 
wholly  withdrawn,  clinging  around  our  skirts,  and 
plucking  at  our  virtue,  and  dragging  down  our  aims 
and  acts,  until  we  go  the  way  of  all  the  earth.  The 
commanding  truths  and  the  vivid  sentiments  and 
the  impressive  promises  of  religion  can  alone  dis- 
perse this  unhallowed  brood,  and  exorcise  the  evil 
spirits  from  possessing  mind  and  heart.  The  Apostle 
John  asks  with  assurance,  "  Who  is  he  that  over- 
cometh  the  world,  but  he  that  believeth  that  Jesus 
is  the  Son  of  God."  Human  life  is  also  a  sphere  of 
numberless  duties,  and  not  a  half-hour  can  pass  in 
our  conscious  and  waking  state,  when  the  claim  is 
not  pressing  upon  us;  but  it  is  of  the  very  nature 
and  office  of  this  heavenly  mentor  and  monitress  to 
teach,  inform,  encourage,  warn,  and  strengthen  with 
interior  force  and  fire  our  natures,  to  meet  honorably 
and  faithfully  this  endless  swarm  and  combination 
of  duties,  and  win  the  human  and  the  divine  testi- 
monial of  a  good  and  faithful  servant.  Our  lot,  too, 
is  one  of  boundless  and  unceasing  change,  —  health 
and  illness,  joy  and  grief,  poverty  and  riches,  reverses 
and  successes,  satisfactions  and  disappointments,  life 
and  death,  post  over  the  scene  in  quick  vicissitude; 
the  shuttle  carries  one  black  thread,  then  one  white ; 
noonday   and    midnight  chase  one    another  round 

30 


350 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY. 


the  globe.  Not  an  instant  in  all  the  years  and  cen- 
turies of  time,  but  darts  some  fatal  arrow  at  home 
and  heart  for  some  one  of  the  children  of  earth ;  and 
what  but  a  shield  tempered  in  heaven  can  ward 
off  the  blow  from  the  breast,  or  what  but  a  balm 
earth  has  not  grown  can  cure  the  wound  when 
made?  This  is  a  sphere  of  vast  and  ever-opening 
opportunities  ;  —  chances  of  good,  if  also  of  exposures 
to  evil ;  avenues  to  a  larger,  truer  being ;  ways  out 
of  the  straitness  of  present  difficulties  ;  streams  of 
knowledge  flowing  around  us,  which  ask  to  be 
tasted  ;  ideals  of  excellence  glowing  above  us,  which 
demand  to  be  striven  for  and  won.  Every  moment 
may  flower  or  ripen  a  noble  thought,  act,  plan.  A 
man  can  do  or  say  in  five  minutes  what  will  make 
him  immortal.  Now  we  may  safely  challenge  all 
the  maxims  of  mere  worldly  prudence  and  temporal 
ease,  and  the  doctrines  of  a  sensual,  or  a  selfish 
philosophy,  to  put  man  up  to  this  bent  of  his  for- 
tunes, and  to  clothe  him  with  such  a  deep,  earnest, 
and  habitual  consciousness  of  what  he  might  be- 
come, as  a  creature  and  child  of  God,  —  how  wise, 
how  patient,  how  strong,  how  happy,  that  he  will 
work  unceasingly  through  all  discouragements  to 
attain  the  highest  excellence  of  character  and  life ! 
But  religion,  drawing  upon  the  motives  of  a  wider 
compass  than  earth,  deeper  reasons  than  empirical 
knowledge,  and  more  enduring  results  than  are 
chronicled  in  the  books  of  time,  can  give  the  needed 
momentum.    It  can,  and  does,  say,  Aim  high ;  strive 


RELIGION   A   NECESSITY.  351 

after  a  divine  holiness  and  purity ;  live  like  a  god 
in  the  world. 

3.  And  then,  coming  to  the  third  branch  of  the 
subject,  the  Destiny  of  3Ian,  we  find  all  the  previous 
arguments  for  the  reality  and  necessity  of  religion 
trebled  and  quadrupled.  For  this  is  peculiarly  the 
transcendent  realm,  where  her  glories  and  her  proofs 
likewise  are  to  appear.  If  man,  born  out  of  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  is  only  earth,  then  let  him  run  his 
wild  course,  and  burn  out  his  taper  of  life  as  soon 
as  passion  and  pleasure  may  dictate.  It  matters 
not  so  much,  though  even  on  that  theory  it  still 
matters  much,  what  he  is  and  does.  But  if  he  is 
created  in  the  image  of  .the  Everlasting  God,  and 
called  to  the  inheritance  of  a  conscious  being 
through  all  the  unending  ages  of  the  future,  —  if, 
even  in  this  morning  of  his  days,  he  is  filled  and 
sometimes  transported  with  aspirations,  dim  it  may 
be,  but  vast,  grand,  and  exalting,  for  sweeter  joys,  for 
purer  delights,  a  serener  happiness,  a  more  thrilling, 
inward,  and  abiding  bliss,  than  the  rarest  moments 
of  this  life  have  given ;  for  flowers  that  never  fade, 
and  fruits  that  are  fresh  from  the  tree  of  life,  and 
waters  that  satisfy  the  thirsty  soul,  and  scenes  and 
societies  that  ecstasize,  expand,  and  feast  the  very 
soul;  —  if  such  is  the  realm  of  being  to  which  this 
creature  man  is  on  his  way,  and  to  whose  celestial 
city  he  is  already  lifting  up  his  eyes,  what,  we 
ask,  shall  best  fit  him  for  such  a  sublime  career  ? 
What  is  adequate  to  prepare  him  to  live  for  ever  ? 


852  RELIGION   A    NECESSITY. 

King's  sons  and  heirs-apparent  to  the  throne  are 
educated  usually  with  great  care,  as  necessary  to  the 
duties  of  the  court  and  the  kingdom,  and  special  at- 
tention is  devoted  to  their  studies,  manners,  and 
characters.  What  shall  fit  aright  these  members  of 
a  more  august  royal  family,  these  heirs  to  a  more 
than  kingly  throne,  these  candidates  who  are  to  ap- 
pear in  the  court  and  kingdom  of  the  Monarch  of 
all  ?  Dumb  here  are  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece, 
the  sages  of  Egypt,  the  philosophers,  and  the  moral- 
ists. They  speculate  well  on  the  duties  of  the  con- 
tracted sphere  of  earthly  relations,  but  how  can  they 
speak  to  the  infinitude  of  man's  being ;  and,  bound 
to  earth,  not  even  certain  there  is  a  hereafter,  and 
having  little  clear  idea  of  its  conditions,  and  the 
general  nature  of  its  duties  and  enjoyments,  how 
can  the  children  of  sense  give  the  law  of  eternal  life  ? 
Only  what  is  of  the  same  kind  with  itself  can  meet 
the  wants  of  an  immortal  spirit,  namely,  an  im- 
mortal religion,  an  immortal  Saviour,  an  eternal 
God.  This  loftier  plane  of  our  being  can  only  be 
reached  by  the  guidance  of  the  Celestial  Visitant. 
Coming  down  from  heaven,  she  can  guide  us  thither, 
and  she  alone.  When  friends  depart,  and  the  places 
that  have  known  them  know  them  no  more,  —  when 
our  own  health  fails,  and  we  are  impressed  with  the 
consciousness  that  this  is  not  our  final  home,  —  what 
can  give  comfort,  strength,  patience,  peace  ?  Cold 
then  is  all  the  glitter  of  art ;  as  it  is  recorded  of  the 
sculptor  Bacon,  that  he  directed  this  sentence  to  be 


RELIGION    A    NECESSITY.  353 

inscribed  on  his  tomb :  "  Wtiat  I  was,  as  an  artist, 
seemed  to  me  of  some  importance  while  I  lived  ;  but 
what  I  really  was,  as  a  believer  in  Christ  Jesus,  is 
the  only  thing  of  importance  to  me  now." 

Dull,  then,  is  the  splendor  of  wealth,  for  we 
brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  we  can  carry 
nothing  out.  Power,  and  fame,  and  learning  even, 
and  some  of  the  lower  of  man's  attainments,  even 
in  the  moral  and  intellectual  sphere,  are  but  freezing 
comforters  to  the  bereaved,  sick,  and  dying.  But  in 
these  critical  seasons  of  our  being,  when  man  is 
driven  in  from  the  outworks  to  the  centre  and  sub- 
stance of  his  nature,  Religion  utters  her  grand  tones 
of  courage,  promise,  and  eternity,  and  vindicates 
herself  as  the  soul's  supreme  necessity,  the  one 
thing  needful,  which,  once  possessed,  can  never  be 
taken  away,  but  will  grow  dearer  and  brighter  and 
diviner  for  ever. 

Religion,  then,  is  the  true  aliment  of  our  nature, 
the  true  master  of  our  condition,  and  the  true  guide  to 
everlasting  life.  Our  nature  without  it  is  an  abor- 
tion, full  of  promises  without  performance.  Our  con- 
dition without  it  is  a  labyrinth  without  a  clew,  —  a 
dark  maze  without  a  plan.  And  our  destiny  without 
it  is  buried  in  hopeless  gloom  and  blackness  of  dark- 
ness and  despair.  Then  man,  looking  within,  can 
see  nothing  that  allies  him  to  his  Maker;  and,  look- 
ing around  him,  can  trace  no  intention  in  life's  trials, 
temptations,  and  duties;  and,  looking  forward  and 
upward,  can  discern    no  rainbow  of  hope  arching 

30* 


354  RELIGION    A    NECESSITY. 

over  the  rayless  heavens  of  eternity.  So  to  believe, 
so  to  live,  is  death  ;  it  is  not  necessary  to  exhale  the 
last  breath  and  be  put  into  the  tomb  to  die ;  this 
state  is  dying,  dying  in  the  immortal,  nobler  part, 
shrinking  into  dust  and  nothingness  in  the  most 
vital  sense.  O,  never  be  beguiled  by  the  folly  that 
religion,  the  guide,  teacher,  inspirer,  comforter  of 
man,  Js  unnatural,  unnecessary,  a  trick  of  the  artful, 
a  pious  fraud,  a  police  useful  to  the  state,  a  fear  in 
superstitious  minds !  "  For  it  is  not  a  vain  thing  ; 
because  it  is  your  life."  And  the  more  faithfully  it 
is  made  our  life,  not  a  creed  only,  not  a  ceremony, 
or  even  a  sentiment  only,  but  the  habitual,  daily,  and 
inner  life  of  all  our  spiritual  powers,  the  richer  and 
dearer  does  life  grow ;  its  events  all  descending  like 
blessed  mercy-drops  in  the  great  rain  of  Providence, 
and  its  lessons  and  trials  all  shining  with  a  holy  ra- 
diance in  the  broad  daylight  of  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness. Seek  and  pray  for  this  good,  with  all  the 
zeal  and  industry  of  your  nature,  and  they  who  seek 
shall  find,  and  they  who  ask  shall  receive,  thirty, 
fifty,  a  hundred  fold.  For  the  Great  Treasury  of 
blessings  above  is  always  full  and  overflowing,  and 
we  may  trust  with  perfect  confidence  in  the  Father- 
ly Hand  that  dispenses  them  to  the  creatures  of  His 
love  and  immortality.  As  long  as  God  is  rich,  his 
children  cannot  be  poor. 


DISCOUUSE    XXI 


RELIGION  IN  ITS  FOURFOLD  EXPRESSION. 

THE   LAW   OP   THE    SPIRIT    OF   LIFE    IN   CHRIST    JESUS   HATH   MADE 
ME   FREE   FROM    THE   LAW  OF  SIN   AND  DEATH. —  RomanS  Vui.  2. 

The  interesting  festival  .of  our  Saviour's  birth 
again  invites  us  to  bring  our  offering  to  the  altar  of 
devotion,  and  to  fill  these  seats  of  meditation.  We 
have  assembled  to  praise  our  Heavenly  Father  for 
the  unspeakable  gift  of  his  Son,  and  to  reanimate  or 
kindle  the  life  of  his  religion  in  our  breasts.  As  the 
changes  of  another  year  have  gone  their  rounds,  as 
Spring  has  strewed  over  nature  her  flowers,  as  Sum- 
mer has  matured  her  fruits,  and  as  Autumn  has 
opened  her  horn  of  plenty,  we  have  been  regaled 
with  new  beauties  and  sublimities  in  God's  fair  and 
living  universe,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  have  grown  in 
those  sentiments  of  wonder  and  love  and  reverence 
for  the  august  Creator,  which  it  is  the  happiness,  no 
less  than  the  duty,  of  man  to  cultivate.  As  we  have 
gone  through  the  mixed  experiences  of  another  year, 
as  we  have  met  the  smiles  or  bufTetings  of  the  world, 


356         RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

have  rejoiced  in  strength  or  been  bowed  in  sickness, 
have  bid  adieu  to  dear  friends  departing  hence,  or 
welcomed  new  beings  into  life,  as  fresh  ties  or  attach- 
ments have  been  formed,  or  old  ones  been  dissolved, 
hapless  must  have  been   our  lot   and  dull  our  im- 
provement if  we  have    not,  swept   by  all  these  in- 
fluences from  without,  and   by  the    movements  of 
God's   stirring    Spirit  within,   had    new  and   more 
earnest  convictions  of  the  infinite  value  of  that  re- 
ligion which  shone  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  in 
the  star  of  Bethlehem.     As  we  have  cast  our  eyes 
abroad,  too,  and  heard  the   distant  murmurs,  as  of 
the  ocean's  roar,  of  the  busy  world,  waking  the  echoes 
of  these  quiet  vales,  and  peopling  our  fancies  with 
scenes  of  other  lands,  —  as  the  leaf  of  history  has  been 
filled  up  with  the  record  of  another  year  of  follies 
and  sins,  and  virtues  and  glories,  —  poor  must  have 
been  our  moral  vision,  and  feeble  our  faith,  not  to 
have  seen  that  what  is  wanted  everywhere,  above  all 
things  else,  —  in  convulsed  Europe,  effeminate  Asia, 
bleeding  Africa,  and  rising  America,  —  is  that  Gos- 
pel which  bears  on  its  benignant  front  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man,  the  awe  of  a  filial  worship  and  the 
sympathy  of   a  universal  brotherhood.     What  but 
this  can  raise  the  grovelling  millions,  or  subdue  their 
proud  oppressors?     What  else  can  stanch  the  flow- 
ing wounds  of  a  warlike  world,  point  the  upward 
aspirations  of  the  human  soul,  above  th.e  shrines  of  a 
cruel  and  obscene  idolatry,  to  the  Father  of  lights, 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.       357 

and  turn  the  vast  energies  of  advancing  civilization 
to  deeds  of  liberty  and  philanthropy  ?  As  another 
year,  by  its  close  and  searching  discipline,  which 
we  could  not  escape  if  we  would,  and  would  not  if 
we  could,  has  sifted  and  proved  us ;  as  the  ceaseless 
tide  of  feeling  and  thought  has  poured  along  with  its 
dark  depths  of  sorrow  below,  and  its  bright,  breaking 
bubbles  of  hope  above ;  as  God  himself,  in  his  mys- 
terious union  with  us,  has  shined  in  with  his  awaken- 
ing light  upon  our  souls,  can  we  have  failed  to  see 
and  feel  that  the  wonder  and  joy  and  hope  and 
beauty  of  the  world  is  that  religion  which  was  en- 
shrined in  the  babe  in  the  manger,  the  exile  into 
Egypt,  the  carpenter  at  Nazareth,  the  homeless 
teacher  of  Galilee,  the  victim  of  Calvary  ? 

Were  such  in  any  measure,  feebler  or  fuller,  the 
fruits  of  our  experience  and  the  conclusion  of  our 
thinking,  we  should  be  ready  to  confess  that  the  nature 
and  claims  and  character  of  such  a  friend  of  man, 
and  such  a  benefactor  of  his  race,  are  of  no  second- 
ary importance.  In  addressing  ourselves  to  these 
subjects,  we  shall  be  aided  by  surveying  religion  un- 
der the  aspects  of  a  History,  an  Institution,  a  Creed, 
and  a  Life  or  Spirit ;  for  as  a  History  it  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  and  instructive ;  as  an  Institu- 
tion, the  most  powerful ;  as  a  Creed,  the  most  satis- 
factory ;  and  as  a  Life,  the  most  divine. 

1.  The  History  of  Religion,  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment in  man,  —  for  it  is  getting  to  be  acknowledged 
slowly,  but  surely,  that  he  has  such   a  sentiment 


358        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.  ' 

deeply  ingrained  in  his  constitution, —  its  successive 
developments,  its  sinkings  and  its  soarings,  —  forms  a 
thrilling  element  in  the  record  of  departed  genera- 
tions. Perverted,  abused,  neglected,  as  it  may  have 
been,  it  never  wholly  went  out  in  any  age,  however 
corrupt ;  any  tribe,  however  savage.  The  rudest  dia- 
lect furnishes  terms  for  the  two  leading  ideas  of  the 
religious  nature,  Conscience  and  God.  The  fierce 
Indian,  the  South  Sea  cannibal,  the  brutish  Hotten- 
tot, the  roaming  Tartar,  the  treacherous  Malay,  have 
had  their  deities,  their  priests,  and  ceremonies.  The 
sentiment  of  religion  has  been  dreadfully  darkened, 
but  never  extinguished.  As  w^e  know  that  where  it 
smokes  there  is  fire  lurking  somewhere  underneath, 
though  no  clear,  bright  flame  blazes  up ;  so  these 
mumbling  ceremonies  and  bloody  rites  and  awful  su- 
perstitions and  silly  doctrines  of  Paganism  proclaim 
a  religious  nature  beneath,  struggling  and  reaching 
blindly  after  God. 

But  the  interest  in  religion  as  a  history  is  con- 
centrated mainly  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
Natural  Religion  never  accomplished  much  for  the 
elevation  of  the  individual,  and  nothing  for  the  pro- 
gressive improvement  of  the  race.  It  has  only  glim- 
mered and  flickered  faintly,  except  in  a  very  few 
remarkable  exceptions.  But  the  history  of  Revealed 
Religion,  and  the  biography  of  those  who  were  made 
its  heralds  and  examples  to  the  world,  have  spread 
beyond  the  narrow  country  in  which  they  were  origi- 
nally formed,  and  the  languages  in  which  they  were 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.        359 

first  written,  and  have  spoken  to  almost  all  nations  in 
their  native  tongues.  As  a  history,  what  book  can 
compare  with  the  Bible  ?  Dating  back  to  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world,  describing  the  origin  of  man  and  the 
growth  of  families  into  nations,  painting  the  whole- 
sale corruption  and  the  sweeping  retribution  of  the 
early  ages,  leaving  the  general  history  of  the  repeo- 
pled  earth,  and  tracing  the  progress  of  a  single  fam- 
ily, and  eventually  mighty  nation,  until  it  gained  its 
liberty  and  land  of  heritage,  and  was  established  in 
the  worship  of  one  God,  —  where  is  there  a  volume 
that,  for  grandeur  of  events,  antiquity  of  origin,  and 
lessons  of  warning,  not  to  speak  of  its  divine  Law,  is 
comparable  to  the  Pentateuch  ?  Or,  as  we  sail  fur- 
ther down  the  stream,  and  judges  and  prophets  and 
kings  and  poets  rise  to  view,  and  the  dealings  of 
Heaven  with  a  backsliding  people  are  developed,  —  as 
David  strikes  the  harp  of  praise,  and  Solomon  teaches 
the  art  of  life,  and  Isaiah  kindles  with  the  coming  of 
future  events,  —  we  confess  that  here  is  no  common 
volume,  but  one  matchless  and  divine.  But  the  edi- 
fice is  incomplete  still.  A  greater  than  Solomon, 
and  one  whom  David  called  Lord,  was  yet  to  come. 
And  this  night,  eighteen  centuries  ago,  he  was  born 
of  a  poor  Galilean  woman  in  a  caravansary  in  Beth- 
lehem, and  laid  in  a  manger,  for  lack  of  better  accom- 
modations. What  a  night  to  the  world,  that  was 
to  shed  more  light  upon  the  darkened  earth  than  all 
previous  days  had  done  I  A  star  pointed  out  the 
memorable  spot,  and  choirs  of  angels  chanted  a  jubi- 


360        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

lant  song,  —  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good-will  to  men !  "  Peaceful  shepherds 
congratulated  his  birth,  and  Eastern  Magi  honored 
him  with  royal  presents.  Fitting  introduction  to  the 
Prince  of  Peace !  How  painful  to  contrast  it  with 
his  dying  scene,  amidst  insult  and  torture,  in  the 
place  of  sculls,  the  sun  shrouded,  the  earth  quaking, 
and  the  graves  yawning  and  giving  up  their  ten- 
ants! 

The  interest  of  the  Old  Testament  centres  around 
one  people,  the  Jews ;  that  of  the  New,  around  one 
person,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  His  life,  teach- 
ings, and  death,  the  writings  of  his  disciples,  and  the 
history  of  his  infant  Church,  compose  a  book  which 
even  the  infidel  has  acknowledged  w^as  unsurpassed 
in  interest  by  any  of  the  works  of  human  genius,  a 
book  which  has  given  Art  its  inspiration.  Literature 
its  elevation.  Society  its  progressive  impulses,  and 
Man  his  immortal  hope  and  salvation. 

The  Bible  is  History  teaching  by  example  the  no- 
blest of  truths,  the  highest  of  duties,  and  the  purest 
of  motives.  In  History,  religion  is  personified,  —  lives 
and  moves  and  acts  and  speaks  so  as  to  interest  us  in 
the  art  of  true  living.  If  general  history  is  fruitful 
of  lessons  of  warning  and  encouragement  and  truth, 
how  much  more  we  may  say  of  that  religious  his- 
tory which  especially  treats  of  the  spiritual  aspects 
of  man's  condition,  the  spiritual  capacities  of  his 
constitution,  and  the  infinitude  of  his  destiny, — 
which  portrays  God  in  all  his  love,  and  holds  up  a 
perfect  form  of  humanity  in  his  Son! 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.        361 

But  a  clamor  has  been  raised  against  Religion  as 
a  History,  or  historical  Christianity,  by  some  mod- 
ern thinkers.  It  is  said,  "  The  letter  is  trusted,  whilst 
the  spirit,  that  giveth  life,  is  neglected.  The  Scrip- 
tures are  read  as  a  charm  to  keep  off  evil  and  sin, 
not  as  an  inspirer  of  a  spiritual  life.  More  regard  is 
paid  to  the  historical  Christ  who  lived  and  suffered 
ages  ago,  than  to  the  reproduction  in  ourselves  of 
Christ,  according  to  the  labor  of  the  Apostle  who 
wished  Christ  to  be  formed  in  his  converts."  There 
may  be  some  truth  in  this  view ;  it  is  worthy  of  in- 
quiry whether  we  do  not  fall  in  some  measure  into 
the  error  alluded  to.  Still,  what  is  wanted  is  not 
less,  but  more,  consulting  of  the  records  of  our  faith  ; 
not  less  attention  to  Religion  as  a  History,  as  a  Bi- 
ography, but  more  attention  to  Religion  as  a  Life,  as 
a  Spirit,  as  a  Character  to  be  formed,  and  growing 
in  these  hearts,  and  shedding  its  peace  and  beauty 
over  these  lives.  The  history  of  religion,  of  Jesus, 
has  no  mysterious  spell,  no  magic  power,  to  ward  off 
sin,  to  regenerate  the  soul  with  a  divine  life,  by  read- 
ing a  chapter  in  the  morning  and  a  chapter  in  the 
evening,  except  so  far  as  it  supplies  us  with  kindling 
motives,  pours  streams  of  light  and  hope  into  the 
soul,  and  summons  the  spiritual  nature  to  action, 
life,  and  progress.  But  because  the  Bible  is  read 
coldly,  formally,  lifelessly,  shall  we  give  up  its  peru- 
sal ?  By  no  means.  But  let  us  advise  a  more 
attentive,  feeling,  devout  study.  For  there  we  are 
taught  the  science  of  the  spiritual  life,  we  see  the 

31 


362       RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

way  to  be  good,  and  are  addressed  by  all  the  motives 
heaven  and  earth  can  supply,  by  a  forgiving  God  and 
a  dying  Redeemer  and  a  future  judgment,  to  walk  in 
the  way  everfasting.  Whilst,  then,  we  view  Relig- 
ion as  a  History  according  to  its  true  claims,  and 
guard  against  supposing  that  it  can  take  the  place 
of,  or  supersede,  Religion  as  a  Life,  we  are  also  to 
guard  against  that  radicalism  so  common  at  the 
present  day,  which  seems  disposed  to  rank  the  Holy 
Scriptures  along  with  the  works  of  mere  human 
genius,  and  classes  Paul  and  John  with  Socrates  and 
Plato.  Religion  as  a  History  can  never  lose  its 
claims  to  the  reverence  and  attention  of  mankind. 
"What  would  the  Gospel  of  Christ  now  have  been, 
but  for  the  historical  form  in  which  it  was  put  by 
his  inspired  disciples  ?  Probably  only  a  dim  tra- 
dition, a  lifeless  fable,  if  it  could  indeed  have  sur- 
vived the  wreck  of  time  at  all,  and  not  been  utterly 
lost.  "We  owe  to  history  the  knowledge  of  his  life 
and  character,  doctrine  and  death,  who  came  into 
the  world  as  the  brightness  and  image  of  God,  to 
bring  back  and  reconcile  the  world  to  the  Father. 
That  fact  alone  is  a  eulogium  upon  religion  in  its 
historical  form,  which  can  never  be  gainsaid  or  ob- 
scured. 

2.  "We  pass  to  another  point,  —  Relig-ion  as  an  In- 
stitution. Some  sects  of  Christians  have  protested 
against  religion  in  this  form.  They  would  make 
Christianity  wholly  a  life,  a  spirit.  They  would 
have  no  Sabbath, but  make  everyday  sacred.     They 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.       363 

would  have  no  church  but  the  church  of  pure  minds 
and  devout  souls,  invisible  to  man,  but  visible  to 
God.  They  would  have  no  ministry,  but  let  every 
man  be  his  own  priest,  and  minister  at  his  own  altar, 
or  before  the  people,  as  the  spirit  moved  him.  The 
ordinances  of  religion  they  call  a  dead  letter.  But 
many  words  are  not  required  to  refute  such  notions. 
They  are  opposed  to  the  philosophy  of  man,  to  the 
teachings  of  history,  and  the  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  Religion  ever  has  existed,  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  ever  will  exist,  as  an  Insti- 
tution, with  its  sacred  days,  with  its  edifices  and 
priests  and  privileges  and  rites  and  ceremonies. 
There  is  something  in  man  that  calls  for  these 
things,  and  will  have  them  in  every  kind  of  religion. 
The  Pagan,  the  Mahometan,  the  Jewish,  and  the 
Christian  world  have  possessed  religious  institutions. 
Jesus  saw  what  was  in  man,  and  he  sanctioned  Bap- 
tism, and  instituted  the  Supper,  and  appointed  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation.  He  showed  his  profound 
respect  for  Religion  as  an  Institution  by  being  him- 
self baptized,  by  his  attendance  on  all  the  holy  festi- 
vals of  his  nation,  by  his  worship  in  the  synagogue, 
and  participation  in  its  exercises,  and  by  his  remark 
to  the  Jews  who  elevated  the  tithing  of  mint  and  anise 
and  cumin  above  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law, 
that  they  ought  to  have  done  the  one,  but  not  to 
leave  the  other  undone.  The  institutions  he  estab- 
lished were  so  simple  and  so  natural,  so  adapted  to 
the  wants  of  the  human  mind,  that  they  have  been 


364        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD   EXPRESSION. 

observed  almost  universally  amongst  his  followers, 
and  can  never,  whilst  man  remains  as  he  is,  be  root- 
ed up.  He  left  room  for  choice  and  the  consulting  of 
the  circumstances  of  different  ages  and  nations  and 
climates,  as  to  the  mode  of  performing  his  ceremo- 
nies, and  founding  his  Church,  and  preaching  and 
spreading  his  Gospel,  thus  making  Religion  as  a 
Spirit  mould  and  adapt  Religion  as  an  Institution  to 
the  wants  of  successive  periods.  He  designed  that 
the  institutions  should  not  overlay  and  crush  out  the 
life,  but  be  at  the  same  time  the  expression  and  the 
quickener  of  that  life  and  spirit  in  which  the  heart 
and  substance  of  true  religion  consist.  And  so,  in 
some  measure,  it  has  been.  Sensuous  ages  and  na- 
tions have  multiplied  forms  and  ceremonies  to  speak 
to  the  eye  and  ear  and  imagination  ;  hence  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  magnificence  of  worship.  More  intel- 
lectual and  cultivated  communities  are  satisfied  only 
with  simplicity ;  hence  the  Congregational  Institu- 
tion, which  relies  for  its  power  more  upon  ideas  than 
sights  ^and  sounds,  which  calls  the  individual  soul 
into  action,  and  to  which  our  fathers  were  indebted 
for  their  system  of  free  commonwealths. 

While,  then,  it  is  folly  to  emphasize  the  institu- 
tions of  religion  as  the  chief  thing,  and  to  honor 
days  and  places  and  persons  and  ceremonies  as  ends? 
and  not  as  means,  as  saving  in  themselves,  and  not 
as  saving  because  they  nourish  a  genuine  piety; 
whilst  it  is  absurd  to  make  any  outward  rite  the  all- 
important  requisite  to  the  Christian  title,  and  to  pass 


RELIGION   IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.       365 

by  the  weightier  matters  of  judgment,  mercy,  faith, 
and  the  love  of  God,  still,  Religion  as  an  Institution 
is  to  be  respected  and  cherished  as  the  embodiment, 
the  expression,  and  the  nourisher  of  the  life  of  the 
soul.  You  might  just  as  well  say  that  Liberty  ought 
to  dwell  in  men  as  a  spirit,  and  never  take  any  out- 
ward form,  never  be  expressed  in  govern naents  and 
laws,  and  have  no  officers  to  care  for  its  interests,  to 
interpret  and  defend  its  enactments,  and  give  life  and 
diffusion  to  its  holy  symbols  and  generous  influences, 
as  to  condemn  religion  in  its  institutional  character, 
and  decry  its  Sabbaths  and  churches  and  ministers 
and  ordinances.  He  who  fights  against  Religion  as 
an  Institution,  fights  against  both  the  senses  and  the 
souls  of  men  ;  for,  whilst  man  has  an  eye  to  see  and 
a  heart  to  feel,  he  will  love  the  seasons  of  holy  med- 
itation, and  the  sanctuary  of  worship,  and  the  cere- 
monies of  a  spiritual  import  will  convey  stimulus 
and  nutriment  to  his  immortal  nature.  We  read  of 
the  New  Jerusalem,  the  heavenly  city,  as  having  no 
temple  therein ;  "  for  the  Lord  God  Almighty  and 
the  Lamb  are  the  temple  of  it " ;  but  we  read  of  no 
such  epoch  in  this  state,  and  our  Saviour  never  inti- 
mated that  a  day  was  coming  for  the  abrogation  of 
all  external  forms  of  Religion.  Every  age  should 
have  the  forms  best  adapted  to  its  condition  and 
wants,  and  to  seek  that  adaptation,  and  not  the  de- 
struction of  all  outward  religious  institutions,  should 
ever  be  the  aim  of  a  spiritual  faith  and  a  Christian 
reformer. 

31  * 


366        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

3.  The  next  aspect  under  which  we  were  to  con- 
template Religion  was  that  of  a  Greedy  or  Belief, 
In  every  science  and  art  there  are  certain  fundamen- 
tal principles,  to  which  all  conclusions  are  referred, 
and  by  which  they  are  tested.  But  as  the  human 
mind  has  advanced,  these  first  principles,  as  they 
were  supposed  to  be,  have  often  been  exploded,  to 
make  way  for  others  more  in  accordance  with  the 
truth  of  things.  Do  we  not  witness  a  similar  pro- 
gression in  religion  ?  The  belief  of  the  Pagan 
gives  way  to  that  of  the  Jew,  to  that  of  the  Ma- 
hometan, and  they  in  their  turn  yield  to  the  Christian. 
The  Christian  itself  undergoes  changes ;  the  Catho- 
lic belief  is  overthrown  by  Protestantism,  and  the 
creed  of  reformers  themselves  is  superseded  by  a 
more  enlightened  and  rational  faith.  Thus  Religion 
as  a  Creed  is  ever  changing,  according  to  the  wants 
and  the  improvement  of  the  race,  as  well  as  Religion 
as  an  Institution.  The  world  goes  on  reforming  and 
re-reforming.  Systems  once  pronounced  firm  as  the 
throne  of  Truth  itself,  melt  away  like  snows  before 
the  sun,  and  men  never  seem  so  much  in  the  attitude 
of  believing,  as  preparing  to  believe  something  by 
and  by.  This  restless  state,  these  everlasting  changes 
and  innovations,  may  be  wept  over,  but  it  is  wholly 
useless  to  lament  them  ;  for  they  obey  the  law  of 
progress,  the  onward  movements  of  the  human  soul 
in  its  unceasing  struggle  after  light,  liberty,  and  ex- 
pansion. And  it  is  as  idle  to  expect  any  retrograde 
step,  and  the  revival  of  doctrines  once  grov/n  obso- 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.       367 

lete,  as  that  the  full-grown  man  should  resume  the 
cast-off  garments  of  his  childhood. 

"  One  spell  upon  the  minds  of  men 
Breaks,  never  to  unite  again." 

Every  religious  mind  has  something  fixed  and  set- 
tled, a  set  of  first  principles  or  truths,  to  which  it 
refers  opinions,  conduct,  and  institutions,  as  a  crite- 
rion. If  they  agree,  well ;  if  not,  the  latter  are  to  be 
discarded.  But  it  has  not  been  duly  considered  by 
all,  that  these  supposed  first  principles  or  truths,  these 
standards  themselves,  may,  after  all,  turn  out  to  be 
partially  erroneous ;  that  they,  as  well  as  all  subsid- 
iary points,  may  need  examining  and  resettling. 
The  history  of  the  Christian  Church  illustrates 
nothing  more  remarkably  than  the  modification  of 
creeds,  regarded  by  those  who  made  them  as  abso- 
lutely unchangeable. 

Viewing,  then,  the  progressive  character  of  the  re- 
ligious sentiment,  and  its  new  manifestations  from 
age  to  age,  looking  historically  at  the  mutability  of 
human  belief  and  opinions,  we  shall  see  that  there 
never  was  a  more  vain  attempt,  or  one  more  incon- 
sistent with  the  growth  of  the  soul  and  the  advance 
of  the  race,  than  to  endeavor  to  chain  down  the  Chris- 
tian Church  to  identity  of  creed.  It  never  has  been 
done,  it  never  will  or  can  be  done.  It  is  against 
the  nature  of  man,  the  spirit  of  religion,  and  the  law 
of  growth.  The  winds  cannot  all  be  made  to  blow 
in  one  direction,  the  waters  all  to  flow  to  one  point 
of  the  compass.     All  human  faces  cannot  be  made 


368        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

to  look  alike,  all  voices  to  sound  alike,  all  minds  to 
think  alike,  nor  all  hearts  to  feel  alike.  Yet  all  these 
things  could  just  as  easily  be  done  as  to  make  all 
men  believe  alike  on  the  vast,  diversified,  mysterious, 
infinite  subjects  of  religion,  where  there  is  so  much 
opportunity  for  the  differences  of  constitution,  taste, 
education,  mode  of  life,  habits  of  thought,  and  vari- 
eties in  moral  character  and  culture,  to  come  into 
play  and  modify  faith. 

The  chief  thing  that  has  embroiled  the  Church 
has  been  this  unphilosophical  and  unchristian  en- 
deavor to  make  all  believe  alike.  It  has  led  to  war 
and  persecution,  and  the  most  awful  consequences 
in  the  list  of  human  woes.  It  built  the  racks  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  lighted  the  fires  of  Smithfield.  It 
slaughtered  the  Waldenses  like  wild  beasts  amongst 
their  sublime  mountains,  and  drove  the  Covenanters 
into  caves  and  dens  of  the  earth.  And  if  there  is 
any  of  this  diabolical  spirit  of  persecution  yet  left  to 
rend  and  convulse  the  Christian  body,  like  the  demon 
of  old,  it  is  traceable  to  this  impracticable  wish  to 
make  all  believe  alike,  believe  just  as  we  do,  and  to 
constitute  it  the  greatest  offence,  and  a  mark  of  evil 
and  excommunication,  not  to  believe  so.  The  ob- 
ject has  never  been,  and  never  can  be,  effected.  This 
one  lesson  should  we  learn,  that,  if  we  wish  to  have 
others  subscribe  to  our  creed,  and  assent  to  our  faith, 
we  must  love  them,  we  must  tolerate  them,  we  must 
bear  with  them  long,  and  be  kind  ;  and  then  they  will 
be  far  more  likely  to  think  as  we  do  than  if  we  make  a 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.       369 

violent  onset  upon  them,  and  drive  them  to  take  the 
defensive.  At  least,  if  they  do  not  think  with  us, 
they  will  feel  with  us,  and  the  unity  of  the  spirit,  if 
not  unity  of  creed,  will  be  kept  in  the  bond  of 
peace. 

Religion  as  a  Creed,  as  a  Belief,  will  ever  exist, 
probably,  as  well  as  religion  in  its  institutional 
character.  The  history  of  the  past,  and  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  human  spirit,  and  the  declarations  of  God's 
word,  affirm  it.  But  belief  will  vary,  as  forms  and 
institutions  vary,  from  age  to  age,  according  to  the 
situation  and  culture  and  wants  of  man.  Our  blessed 
Lord,  with  the  far-sighted  vision  of  a  true  prophet, 
foresaw  this,  and  hence  we  do  not  find  him,  as  we 
do  some  of  his  followers,  constructing  a  creed  for  all 
the  world  to  believe,  on  penalty  of  excommunication 
in  this  world  and  damnation  in  that  to  come.  Our 
Lord  left  no  formulary  of  belief.  The  true  Gospel 
Creed  is  simply,  "  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  it  is  nowhere 
stated  with  precision  and  formality,  and  repeated  in 
set  words,  but  given  in  free  and  popular  language,  as 
the  whole  Bible  is  written.  When  Peter  said, "  Thou 
art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  his  Master 
pronounced  him  blessed,  and  said,  "  Upon  this  rock 
I  will  build  my  Church."  The  creed  of  Martha 
was,  "  I  believe  that  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  which  should  come  into  the  world."  The  eu- 
nuch, before  he  was  baptized  by  Philip,  said,  "  I  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God."     And 


370       RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD   EXPRESSION. 

the  jailer  of  Philippi,  when  he  asked,  trembling,  what 
he  should  do  to  be  saved,  was  told  to  believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  would  be  saved,  and  his 
house.  And  so  quotations  might  be  multiplied  to 
any  length,  showing  the  simplicity  and  vitality  of  the 
belief  deemed  essential  in  the  New  Testament  age. 
But  on  all  other  points,  on  the  thousand  topics  of  the- 
ology that  have  agitated  and  embroiled  the  Christian 
world,  no  formula  is  laid  down,  but  each  individual 
and  each  age  is  left  to  decide  for  himself,  assured  that 
when  there  is  a  vital,  believing,  pure  state  of  the  heart, 
and  Jesus  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  there 
can  be  no  very  fatal  error  ;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  possession  of  the  most  approved  creed  is  com- 
patible with  spiritual  torpor  and  death,  as  is  strik- 
ingly exemplified  in  the  case  of  the  Nestorians  of 
the  East,  amongst  whom  the  American  missionaries 
are  laboring,  and  who,  with  the  Nicene  Creed  itself, 
which  is  repeated  twice  every  day,  have  become 
dead,  paralyzed  in  the  spiritual  life.  "  I  am  im- 
pressed," says  one,  "  with  the  idea  that  it  is  spiritual 
death,  rather  than  error  in  theological  belief,  which  is 
their  calamity."  What  a  satire  upon  the  power  of 
creeds  to  keep  alive  the  fires  of  pure  and  undefiled 
religion  are  these  Nestorians,  a  fallen  church,  yet 
repeating  the  Nicene  Creed  twice  a  day ! 

Doctrines  have  a  place,  but  it  is  not  the  highest 
place.  Trouble  and  sickness  and  death  reveal  the 
fundamentals  of  Christianity  as  consisting,  not  in  the 
creed,  but  in  the  character ;  not  in  the  dogmas,  but 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.        371 

in.the  life  ;  not  in  the  correctness  of  the  intellect,  but  in 
the  goodness  of  the  heart.  Christians,  real  Christians, 
find  that  they  more  nearly  agree  as  they  come  to  die. 
4.  Here  we  arrive  at  what  may,  without  arrogance 
or  dispute,  be  declared  as  the  highest  manifestation 
and  essence  of  Religion;  namely,  as  a  Life,  as  a  Spirit. 
Religion  as  a  History,  as  an  Institution,  and  as  a 
Belief  or  Doctrine,  are  rather  means ;  this,  the  great 
end.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  read  of  virtue  in  the 
history  and  biography  of  the  past,  that  we  contem- 
plate even  the  faultless  model  of  the  Saviour's  life, 
unless  we  also  copy  it,  unless  we  also  inhale  that 
living  spirit  of  love  that  irradiated  his  life,  and  made 
even  his  terrible  death  beautiful  to  behold.  It  is  in 
vain  that  the  Sabbath  and  the  institutions  and  ordi- 
nances of  religion  are  observed,  however  punctil- 
iously, unless  the  life  of  the  soul  be  breathed  into 
them,  and  they  are  used,  not  as  being  of  the  na- 
ture of  ends,  but  helps  to  the  spiritual  nature,  in 
working  out,  with  the  cooperation  of  God,  its  ever- 
lasting salvation.  A  creed,  however  tenaciously 
grasped,  or  fondly  cherished,  is  of  inferior  moment 
to  the  Christian  life  and  character,  without  which 
the  most  perfect  creed,  though  constructed  by  all 
the  doctors  of  Christendom,  as  was  the  Nicene, 
becomes  a  mere  icicle,  beautiful  perhaps  to  see, 
but  cold  and  freezing.  Yes,  my  friends,  unless  the 
life  of  pure  benevolence  and  piety,  sublimely  and 
boldly  called  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  the 
life  which  the  Son  of  God  lived  whilst  he  dwelt  in 


872        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

the  flesh,  —  unless  this  holy,  divine,  and  happy  life  be 
rising  and  increasing  within  us,  gaining  ever  new  tri- 
umphs over  the  animal  part,  subduing  the  passions 
and  appetites,  suppressing  self-love,  casting  forth  its 
aspirations  towards  God  and  heaven,  ever  growing 
with  our  growth,  strengthening  with  our  strength, 
and  ripening  with  our  age,  —  without  this,  the  rest 
is  nothing,  is  a  shell  without  a  kernel,  a  show  with- 
out substance,  a  body  without  a  soul.  This  is  that 
law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  of  which  the 
text  speaks,  which  made  the  Apostle  free  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death.  This  only  can  make  us  free 
from  the  evils  of  sin,  and  victorious  over  the  terrors 
of  death.  Religion  as  a  History  cannot  do  it,  Re- 
ligion as  an  Institution  cannot  do  it.  Religion  as  a 
Creed  cannot  do  it,  but  Religion  as  a  Life,  the  law 
of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  can  do  it,  yea, 
has  done  it  in  how  many  glorious  instances !  Let 
men  of  all  ages  and  climes  and  beliefs  come  forward 
and  declare  how  this  life  gave  them  the  victory  over  the 
sins  of  the  flesh,  the  death  of  the  body,  and  the  fears 
of  futurity.  Let  the  glorious  company  of  the  Apos- 
tles, and  the  noble  army  of  martyrs,  and  the  good 
and  true  of  every  church  and  sect,  bear  testimony  to 
the  power  and  efiicacy  of  a  Christian  life.  Come,  ye 
Fathers  and  scholars  of  the  Church !  from  the  caves 
of  the  desert  and  the  mountain,  from  the  cloisters 
of  learned  halls  and  colleges,  golden-mouthed  St. 
John,  holy  Augustine,  immortal  Luther,  and  show 
the  divine  beauty  and  energy  of   a   Christian  life. 


RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION.        373 

Come,  ye  poets,  Milton  and  Cowper  and  Words- 
worth, who  have  waked  to  ecstasy  the  living  lyre!  ye 
philosophers,  Locke  and  Pascal  and  Newton  and 
Bowditch,  who  have  penetrated  the  arcana  of  Nature ! 
ye  vindicators  of  freedom,  Hampden  and  Penn  and 
Washington,  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  !  testify  to 
the  saving  power  of  the  Christian  life,  under  the 
greatest  temptations,  in  the  darkest  calamities,  amidst 
the  most  brilliant  honors  of  the  world,  the  deepest 
studies  of  science,  the  loftiest  flights  of  genius,  and 
the  most  animated  struggles  against  tyranny.  Come, 
too,  ye  humbler  ones,  but  as  noble,  the  Man  of 
Ross,  the  Shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plain,  the  youthful 
Martyn,  the  philanthropic  Frye,  and  convince  us 
how  illustrious  the  Christian  life  makes  the  most  re- 
tired occupation,  dignifies  the  humblest  benevolence, 
and  makes  the  most  distant  country  and  the  darkest 
prison  holy  ground,  shrines  for  the  veneration  of  man- 
kind. 

Whatever  church  we  worship  in,  creed  profess, 
or  calling  pursue,  whether  young  or  old,  sick  or  well, 
rich  or  poor,  this  life,  and  this  alone,  can  avail  us.  If 
we  trust  to  any  other  support,  it  is  a  broken  reed, 
and  will  fail  us.  We  may  quarrel  about*  modes  of 
faith  and  worship,  but  we  must  settle  at  last  on  a 
Christian  life,  as  the  eternal  foundation ;  the  law  of 
the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  as  the  one  great  essen- 
tial. Without  the  spirit  of  Christ  we  are  none  of 
his,  though  we  fight  for  his  tomb,  as  did  the  old  Cru- 
saders, or  fight  for  a  creed,  as  do  the  modern  polem- 

32 


374        RELIGION    IN    ITS    FOURFOLD    EXPRESSION. 

ics.  If  we  have  not  the  life  that  is  hid  with  Christ 
in  God,  we  have  nothing,  though  we  hold  power  and 
wealth  and  beauty  and  every  grace  and  accomplish- 
ment of  the  schools,  but  we  are  really  poor,  and 
wretched,  and  blind. 

But  when  this  life  of  purity  and  generosity  and 
heavenly-mindedness  animates  these  immortal  na- 
tures, when  the  love  of  God  and  man  kindles  our 
whole  souls,  and  burns  with  an  ever  purifying,  living, 
and  transporting  warmth  and  brightness,  we  are  de- 
livered from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  earth  is  ar- 
rayed in  new  beauties,  man  appears  as  a  brother, 
God  as  a  Father,  and  death  transports  to  other  and 
more  glorious  mansions,  to  rejoice  with  joy  unspeak- 
able in  the  company  of  the  just  made  perfect,  and 
the  society  of  our  glorified  Saviour. 


DISCOURSE    XXII 


CHRISTIANITY  PROGRESSIVE. 

BUT  WHEN  THAT  WHICH  IS  PERFECT  18  COME,  THEN  THAT  WHICH 

18  IN  PART  SHALL  BE  DONE  AWAY. —  1  Corinthians  xiii.  10. 

I  ASK  your  attention  at  this  time  to  the  subject  of 
the  progressive  nature  of  Christianity.  We  fervent- 
ly thank  God  that  he  sent  his  Son  into  the  world 
that  we  might  have  life,  and  that  we  might  have  it 
more  abundantly ;  that  he  might  deliver  us  from  sin, 
and  raise  us  to  the  true  and  increasing  life  of  the 
soul.  We  bless  those  strains  which,  in  a  world  of 
idolatry,  spoke  of  glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  of 
peace  in  a  world  filled  with  war,  and  of  good- will 
toward  men  in  a  world  of  selfishness.  It  was  a  faith 
which  man  could  not  have  invented,  but  God  must 
have  given.  But  our  joy  and  hope  would  not  be 
filled  out  to  their  due  measure,  if  we  believed  that 
mankind  have  yet  received  the  ultimate  good  the 
Gospel  is  designed  to  bestow.  If  the  history  of  the 
next  eighteen  hundred  years  is  to  be  the  history  of 
the  past  eighteen  hundred,  if  hope  is  to  be  no  more 


376  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

than  memory,  and  anticipation  to  be  no  brighter 
than  experience,  one  great  beauty  of  oui;  faith  would 
Either,  one  great  pillar  fall ;  for  it  is  a  natural  infer- 
ence, that,  if  in  the  beginning  Christianity  has  been 
able  to  do  so  much,  if,  under  a  mountain-weight 
of  apathy,  and  against  the  pomp  and  power  of  em- 
pires, it  has  won  such  a  hold  upon  humanity,  it 
must  accomplish  much  more  when  it  has  obtained 
possession  of  the  avenue  of  influence  and  intercourse 
over  all  the  nations.  Its  effects  should  observe  a 
geometrical  ratio,  its  power  should  be  felt  as  the 
swiftly  redoubling  momentum  of  gravitation.  If  it 
have  sent  here  and  there  a  straggling  ray  through  the 
solid  night  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  it  can 
finally  pour  the  noontide  splendor.  If  it  have 
cracked  already  some  links,  and  broken  othejrs,  of  the 
piled  and  riveted  and  many-circling  chain  wherewith 
humanity  is  bound,  it  can  at  last  shatter  the  whole 
into  dust.  If  it  have  lightened  some  burdens,  and 
ameliorated  some  evils,  and  wiped  away  many  tears, 
the  day  is  coming  when  it  can  do  ten  or  a  hundred 
fold  more  of  the  same  beneficent  work. 

But  in  thus  speaking  of  Christianity  being  pro- 
gressive, no  one  will  misunderstand  me  so  far  as  to 
imagine  that  I  am  saying  that  there  could  in  the  past 
have  been  any  better  religion  than  that  of  the  New 
Testament,  or  that  there  is  needed  any  new  Mes- 
siah, any  wiser  teacher,  or  any  more  sufficient  Sav- 
iour, in  time  to  come ;  but  only  that  there  may  be 
unlimited  progress  in  men's  ideas,  sentiments,  and 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  377 

application  of  religion.  No;  Christianity  is  a  spirit- 
ual universe.  There  it  stands  in  its  completeness, 
like  the  round  globe  and  the  blue  sky.  There  it 
shines  like  the  sun  in  its  perfection,  and  not  an  angel 
from  the  throne  could  make  its  truth  more  true,  its 
mercy  more  merciful,  its  faith  deeper,  its  charity 
broader,  or  its  hope  higher  or  brighter.  Christianity 
is  a  fixed  quantity,  not  a  fluxion.  Jesus  Christ  is  all 
in  all.  He  drew  the  cup  of  human  salvation  from 
the  stainless  fountain  of  truth.  When  he  said, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and 
with  all  thy  strength,"  he  gave  the  maximum  of  piety, 
or  our  duty  to  our  Heavenly  Father;  and  when  he 
said,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  he 
announced  the  ultimate  law  of  morality,  or  our  duty 
to  our  brother  man.  When  he  said,  "  I  am  the  life,^' 
he  for  ever  excluded  the  idea  of  the  highest  spiritual 
life  out  of  the  line  in  which  he  has  gone  before  us  as 
our  Forerunner.  When  he  said,  "I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion," and  died  and  rose  again,  he  gave  the  crowning 
demonstration  of  human  immortality.  When,  with 
the  blood  of  the  cross,  he  confirmed  his  new  cove- 
nant of  love,  he  stamped  it  with  a  seal  which  no 
self-sacrifice  could  ever  exceed.  When  he  revealed 
God  as  a  Father,  and  man  as  a  brother,  he  exhausted 
the  moral  world  of  its  most  precious  and  hidden 
treasures,  and  scattered  among  men  —  often,  alas !  as 
pearls  before  swine  —  the  brightest  jewels  of  heaven. 
Nothing,  in  fact,  can  be  added  to  the  Gospel  to 
32  * 


378  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

render  it  more  perfect  or  powerful,  or  taken  from  it 
to  make  it  more  pure.  It  is  the  beautiful  world 
of  God's  truth,  and  man's  duty,  and  the  Creator 
himself  has  given  it  his  benediction  and  authority, 
and  pronounced  it  very  good,  and  sent  it  forth  to 
save  myriads  of  immortal  beings.  It  is  the  bread  of 
heaven,  and  there  can  be  no  nutriment  more  strength- 
ening ;  the  water  of  life,  and  there  can  be  no  clearer 
crystal,  no  more  refreshing  draught.  But  while  we 
say,  with  this  reiteration  and  emphasis,  that  the 
Christianity  of  Christ  is  one  and  the  same,  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  for  ever,  perfect  and  absolute,  it  is 
no  less  true  that  the  Christianity  of  the  soul,  the 
Church,  and  society  is  and  should  be  progressive. 

Indeed,  it  would  seem  to  be  hardly  necessary 
either  to  argue  or  illustrate  the  doctrine  in  contem- 
plation, were  it  not  so  flatly  denied  by  some,  and  so 
disregarded  by  many.  But  looking  at  the  most 
general  point  of  view  in  which  we  can  place  the 
subject,  it  would  seem  to  be  a  matter  to  be  pre- 
sumed from  the  universal  law  of  life,  that  there 
would  be  progress  in  religion  as  in  all  other  things. 
Everywhere  there  is  change,  growth,  advancement, 
not  a  particle  of  matter,  and  not  a  moment  of  time, 
but  what  bears  witness  to  the  law.  It  is  seen  in 
the  individual,  and  in  the  mass.  It  is  the  key  to 
history,  and  the  interpreter  of  prophecy.  And  can  it 
be  everywhere  else,  and  not  be  in  the  sum  and  cen- 
tre of  all  truth,  and  love,  and  power,  —  in  religion, 
the  revelation  of  God,  the  perfection  of  man,  the  life 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  379 

and  bliss  of  the  moral  creation  ?  It  would  be  an 
appalling  anomaly.  It  would  be  a  chasm  in  nature. 
It  would  be  to  reverse,  in  the  highest  matters,  what 
holds  true  of  the  lowest,  from  the  growth  of  a  flower 
to  the  formation  of  a  world. 

There  are,  perhaps,  only  two  serious  statements 
made  by  any  one  to  refute  the  doctrine  before  us. 
One  is  the  idea  of  the  perfect  sanctification  of  every 
Christian  heart  by  the  special  grace  of  God,  by 
which  a  state  of  mind  and  character  is  produced 
admitting  of  no  change  or  progress.  When  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  done  its  work,  it  is  said  there  is  no 
more  to  be  done.  When  Christ  is  formed  within, 
there  cannot  be  any  degrees  to  the  perfect.  I  am  as 
ready  as  any  one  to  admit  and  to  teach  that  God 
works  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 
pleasure  ;  who  would  atheistically  exclude  him  from 
the  world  of  mind,  any  more  than  the  world  of  mat- 
ter which  he  every  moment  fills  and  blesses,  darkens 
and  brightens,  moves  and  beautifies  ?  But  he  works 
in  man,  not  in  interference,  but  in  cooperation  with 
human  powers  and  faculties ;  and  their  action  may 
be  more  or  less,  better  or  worse.  Christ  may  be 
formed  within,  but  his  reign  may  not  be  entire  over 
the  will  and  the  heart  Grace  is  not  a  definite 
quantity,  which  when  present  is  wholly  present,  or 
when  absent  is  wholly  absent.  There  are  degrees 
to  all  spiritual  gifts.  The  law  came  by  Moses, 
grace  and  truth  by  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  degrees 
in  the  perfection  and  fulness  of  successive  re  vela- 


380  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

tions  to  the  race,  and  degrees  in  the  reception  of 
holy  influence  from  the  spirit  and  word  of  God  to 
the  individual  soul.  To  deny  progress  in  religion  is  to 
deny  that  the  New  Testanaent  is  any  better  than  the 
Old,  and  to  deny  that  a  Fenelon  or  an  Oberlin  is  a 
more  perfect  being  than  the  latest  convert  from  an 
Indian  wigwam.  Grace  is  given  as  grace  is  re- 
ceived and  improved.  They  that  do  the  will  of 
God  shall  know  of  the  doctrine.  The  sun  shines, 
but  the  eye  that  is  blind,  or  that  is  asleep,  cannot 
see  it.  The  spirit  of  God  moves  over  the  heart,  as 
over  all  nature,  but  it  cannot  be  felt  by  the  stone. 
Grace  comes  to  us,  not  all  at  once,  but  more  and 
more,  as  we  gladly  receive  and  faithfully  improve  it. 
The  better  use  we  make  of  our  talents,  the  more  are 
bestowed.  The  law  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  re- 
ligion in  the  heart  is  more,  more,  and  less,  less. 
God  will  give  as  much  as  we  can  profitably  use ; 
but  the  less  are  our  petitions,  the  less  are  his  gifts 
and  influences.  There  is,  therefore,  not  the  least 
opposition  to  the  great  truth  that  Christianity  is  pro- 
gressive, arising  from  the  conversion  of  the  soul  from 
sin  to  holiness,  the  change  of  the  heart  from  the  love 
of  the  world  to  the  love  of  God.  Indeed,  that 
whole  blessed  process  is  an  exemplification  and  proof 
of  the  doctrine,  from  the  first  throb  of  remorse  to  the 
last  emotion  of  reconciled  trust.  "  First  the  blade, 
then  the  ear;  after  that,  the  full  corn  in  the  ear." 
There  is  a  new  birth,  but  what  were  birth  without 
growth  ?     There   is   a  coming   out   of  darkness,  a 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  381 

visitation  of  the  dayspring  from  on  high,  but  the 
true  light  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day.  In  fact,  all  the  terms  in  Scripture  by  which 
the  religious  life  is  described  are  terms  of  growth, 
movement,  progress;  as  the  germination  of  seeds, 
the  ripening  of  fruits,  the  diffusion  of  leaven,  the 
dawning  of  the  day,  the  stages  of  a  journey,  the  in- 
crease of  the  body,  the  building  of  a  house,  and  the 
mysterious  courses  of  the  winds. 

But  a  second  denial  of  Christianity  as  progressive 
is  made  on  the  supposed  fact  of  the  perfection  of  the 
early  Christian  Church.  That  most  brilliant  fiction, 
which  the  imagination  has  loved  to  dwell  upon,  as  it 
does  upon  all  fictions,  has  been  cruelly  broken  to 
pieces  by  the  stern  logic  and  inquiry  of  modern  ec- 
clesiastical history.  Heretofore,  men  have  seemed 
content  to  believe  that  the  first  three  centuries 
marked  a  golden  era,  since  which  time  Christendom 
has  been  cheapening  down  into  silver,  iron,  and  lead. 
But  it  is  only  another  instance  of  the  poetical  max- 
im, that  "  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view." 
So  far  from  the  very  earliest  days  of  the  Church 
being  immaculate,  there  were  rank  errors  and  foul 
corruptions  rearing  their  ugly  heads  almost  in  the 
face  and  presence  of  the  Holy  One  himself.  To  say 
nothing  of  Peter  the  denier,  and  Thomas  the  unbe- 
liever, and  Judas  the  betrayer,  we  read  enough  in 
the  Acts  and  Epistles  of  the  Apostles  to  convince  us 
that  perfection  was  not  predicable  of  the  primitive 
Church.     Christianity  never  was  pure  except  in  its 


382 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 


great  Founder  and  his  immediate  disciples.  It  was 
corrupted  in  its  cradle.  It  was  whelmed  among 
the  false  philosophies  of  the  day.  We  have  the 
foretaste  of  the  most  abominable  intellectual  errors, 
and  the  foulest  practical  corruptions,  in  the  New 
Testament  itself;  much  more  in  Eusebius,  Sozomen, 
and  Socrates,  the  three  succeeding  historians  of  the 
Church.  We  are  told  by  Paul,  that  there  were  some 
that  said  there  was  no  resurrection  of  the  dead ; 
others,  that  it  was  already  past.  He  explicitly  states, 
that  the  members  of  the  Corinthian  churchr  were 
licentious,  and  that  they  made  even  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per an  occasion  for  drunkenness.  We  learn  from 
the  Epistles  of  John,  that  some  of  the  Christian  con- 
verts denied  that  Jesus  Christ  ever  came  in  the 
flesh ;  and  the  sect  of  the  Nicolaitanes  is  strongly 
and  repeatedly  condemned  in  the  Book  of  Reve- 
lation, while  all  the  seven  churches  of  Asia  are 
severely  chidden  for  their  deadness  and  immoral- 
ities. This  was  in  the  first  century;  we  can  easily 
imagine  what  was  in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth,  at 
a  greater  distance  from  the  life  and  example  of  Jesus. 
Such  is  that  pure  Church  of  which  we  hear  so  many 
fictions,  and  so  little  fact.  Modern  historians  have 
not  been  willing  to  take  things  upon  trust  and  tradi- 
tion, without  proof.  The  truth  is,  that  Christianity, 
immediately  after  its  promulgation,  became  mixed 
by  its  converts  from  Jewish  and  Pagan  schools  of 
philosophy,  by  the  pupils  of  rabbins  and  sophists, 
with  the  dogmas  and  theories  already  in  their  own 


CHRISTfANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  383 

mind,  and  a  more  heterogeneous  compound  cannot 
well  be  imagined.  But  the  Reformation  scattered  a 
host  of  errors.  Later  controversies  have  put  an  end 
to  others,  and,  as  one  after  another  of  the  unsightly 
additions  is  torn  away,  we  begin  to  see  the  fair  and 
divine  temple  of  truth  in  all  its  simplicity  and 
beauty.  "  Say  not  thou,  What  is  the  cause  that  the 
former  days  were  better  than  these  ?  For  thou  dost 
not  inquire  wisely  concerning  this." 

No  arguments,  then,  can  be  drawn  either  from  the 
Christian  life  of  the  individual,  or  the  lessons  of  ec- 
clesiastical history,  to  refute  the  doctrine  for  which 
we  contend.  There  are  three  respects  in  which  our 
holy  religion  is  progressive ;  not,  as  already  shown, 
in  its  record  or  spirit  of  divine  truth,  but  in  its  influ- 
ence and  destiny  in  the  world  which  it  came  to 
save. 

1.  The  ideas  of  Christianity  are  progressive  in  the 
human  mind.  These  are  the  ideas  of  God,  the 
thoughts  of  the  omniscient  intellect.  They  are  the 
laws  of  the  moral  world,  and  as  such  are  unchange- 
able. But  as  it  regards  the  mind  of  the  recipient 
on  earth,  they  are  capable  of  greater  or  less  admix- 
ture with  error.  It  is  the  same  sun  that  gives  us 
light  in  a  cloudy  day  as  in  a  fair  one ;  but  in  one 
case  he  shines  with  direct  effulgence,  and  in  the  other 
quenches  and  dulls  his  arrows  of  light  in  a  floating 
screen  of  vapor.  The  communication  of  truth  de- 
pends not  only  on  the  purity  and  power  of  the  giver, 
but  also  on  the  condition  of  the  receiver.     It  is  one 


384  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

sign  of  the  Divine  origin  and  authority  of  Christ, 
that,  born  and  brought  up  as  a  Jew,  he  yet  retained 
none  of  the  local  and  transient  features  of  his  age 
and  country,  but  rose  in  all  things  to  the  absolute 
and  eternal.  He  suffered  no  contractedness  from 
the  narrowness  of  Nazareth,  and  took  no  hue  from 
the  dark  bigotry  of  Jerusalem.  But  although  his 
precepts  came  thus  pure  and  glowing  from  a  world 
of  light  and  love,  they  became  assimilated  to  the 
hearers,  as  they  fell  upon  gross  ears,  and  entered 
into  benighted  understandings.  The  Jews  could 
not  receive  the  truth,  because  they  were  not  of  the 
truth.  They  had  more  truth  than  other  nations,  be- 
cause they  had  been  educated  in  the  belief  and  wor- 
ship of  one  only  true  God,  but  they  stained  the  pure 
liquid  of  heaven  as  they  poured  it  into  the  discolored 
alembic  of  their  own  minds.  To  deny,  indeed,  as 
some  would  seem  to  do,  that  the  ideas  of  the  Gos- 
pel received  into  erring  and  superstitious  minds 
would  lose  their  large  dimensions  and  perfect  white- 
ness, and  would  be  reduced  down  to  the  calibre  and 
color  of  human  spirits,  dim  and  earthly  and  selfish, 
is  to  resist  all  philosophy  and  reject  all  facts.  We 
are  not  repining.  It  was  a  necessary  process,  as 
men  there  were.  Children  of  the  dust  could  not  at 
once,  unless  miracles  had  been  wrought  upon  all 
their  minds,  grasp  in  their  simplicity  and  sublimity 
the  truths  of  eternity.  Therefore  we  say,  that  as 
soon  as  the  angel  of  Christianity  had  left  the  cross 
and  the  tomb  of  its  Founder,  and  begun  her  weary 


'CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  385 

journey  among  mortals,  her  aspect  grew  less  like  the 
heaven  she  had  left,  and  more  like  the  earth  in 
which  she  wandered.  Her  speech  of  God  and  the 
soul  became  a  dialect  of  Babel,  instead  of  the  song 
of  angels.  The  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest" 
dulled  away  into  the  worship  of  Mammon.  The 
"  Peace  on  earth "  was  drowned  in  the  battle-cry. 
And  the  third  wire  of  this  harp,  strung  by  heavenly 
fingers,  "  Good-will  toward  men,"  soon  snapped 
asunder  amid  the  rough  strivings  of  selfishness. 

The  great  solar  idea  of  Christianity  is,  that  the 
Almighty  God  is  our  Father  ;  but  that  truth  faded 
away  into  the  heathen  conception  of  a  Mighty 
Thunderer,  sitting  aloft  in  the  heavens,  and  hurl- 
ing abroad  his  bolts  of  vengeance  over  a  trembling 
world.  The  men  of  war  of  that  fierce  period  thought 
the  Creator  altogether  such  an  one  as  themselves. 
The  Jewish  doctors  on  one  side,  and  the  Platonic 
philosophers  on  the  other,  largely  imported  their 
own  doctrines  into  the  Christian  creeds.  The  Gnos- 
tic and  Manichajan  doctrines  corrupted  the  Fathers, 
and  the  Fathers  corrupted  Christianity.  Arius  intro- 
duced some  errors,  and  Athanasius  others.  Augus- 
tine opened  the  way  for  Calvin,  and  Calvin  moulded 
and  colored  the  whole  Protestant  world  with  his 
dark,  but  potent  faith. 

Now  it  is  vain  to  say,  that  all  this  while  there  were 
the  words  of  Christ  to  correct  the  errors  of  his  fol- 
lowers. But  they  were  wrested.  They  were  dilut- 
ed.    They  were  forgotten.     They  were  put  aside, 

33 


386  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

by  no  pagan  persecutors,  but  by  the  very  Church 
herself,  as  if  in  shame  at  her  disloyalty.  The  Bible 
was  denied  to  the  laity,  and  was  little  read  by  the 
monks  and  priests.  Luther  did  not  see  a  complete 
copy  of  the  Scriptures  until  he  was  twenty-two 
years  of  age.  Such  closing  of  the  word  of  God 
necessarily  shut  the  door  to  progress.  The  Church 
became  the  prison  of  Christ.  For  more  than  one 
thousand  years,  the  Gospel  was  the  captive  of  monks 
and  priests,  her  truths  hidden,  her  services  corrupted, 
her  progress  stayed,  and  her  name  used  for  the  pur- 
poses of  ambition  and  tyranny  and  pollution.  Ages 
of  unreproved  war,  ages  of  priestcraft,  ages  of  perse- 
cution for  opinion's  sake,  ages  of  spiritual  darkness 
over  the  land,  and  gross  darkness  over  the  people ! 
What  a  fall  was  there  !  The  instrument  of  salva- 
tion an  engine  of  cruelty  ;  the  good  news  a  terror  to 
men ;  the  name  of  Christ  an  incantation  to  curse, 
not  to  bless ;  the  revelation  of  mercy  a  machine  to 
crush  freedom  and  progress  among  men ! 

But  a  change  came.  The  Reformation  broke  the 
slumber  of  ages,  and  called  men  to  life  from  the 
tomb  in  which  they  had  so  long  lain  asleep  and 
dreaming.  The  old  systems  of  error  were  partially 
broken  up,  and  the  stream  began  to  run  clear. 

Then  other  and  even  deeper  changes  have  come, 
and  are  coming.  Error  after  error  is  washing  away. 
The  pure  waters  of  life  are  again  open  to  the  thirsty, 
to  drink  and  live.  The  glorious  ideas  of  Christ, 
eclipsed  for  centuries,  are  coming  out  in  their  bright- 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.   •  3S7 

ness  to  men's  minds.  All  branches  of  the  Church 
Universal  have  felt  the  movement,  and  it  is  as  vain 
to  deny  it,  as  to  deny  that  the  sun  shines  at  noon- 
day. History  thus  demonstrates  that  the  Gospel  is 
progressive  in  its  ideas  of  love,  truth,  and  right ;  and 
that  "  when  that  which  is.  perfect  is  come,  then  that 
which  is  in  part  will  be  done  away." 

2.  The  second  point  relates  to  the  sentiments  of 
Christianity,  All  that  has  before  been  said  about 
ideas  will  apply  here.  Thought  is  first  in  the  order 
of  philosophy,  then  feeling.  Principles  make  way 
for  sentiments,  and  sentiments  grow  into  motives, 
and  motives  lead  on  to  action.  But  how  was  it 
possible  for  the  meek  and  loving  graces  of  Christian- 
ity to  take  possession  of  the  heart  of  the  world,  when 
it  was  preoccupied  with  the  bigotry  of  the  Jews,  and 
the  voluptuousness  of  Greece,  and  the  ambition  of 
the  Romans,  and  the  barbarity  of  the  other  nations  ? 
Especially,  too,  when  those  powerful  truths,  which 
were  designed  to  chasten  and  purify  men's  senti- 
ments, were  lying  fast  bound  in  the  cells  of  super- 
stition ? 

The  haggard  forms  of  fear  and  fancy,  which  had 
so  long  tyrannized  over  men,  the  imaginations  that 
had  hardened  into  beliefs,  the  passions  that  had 
taken  possession  of  the  arts,  the  habits  which  whole 
histories  of  blood  and  wrong  and  cunning  had  in- 
grained upon  nations,  the  monuments  and  mytholo- 
gies of  the  past,  the  battle-pieces  on  the  canvas  and 
in  the  marble,  the  pomp  and  pride  of  cities,  and  the 


388  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

legends  of  hill  and  valley,  ancestral  and  national 
honors,  and  all  the  thick-woven  web  of  either  a 
Jewish  or  a  heathen  community,  could  not  at  once 
welcome  the  love  and  peace  and  humility  and  pu- 
rity of  Christ.  "  His  cross  was  unto  the  Jews  a 
stumbling-block,  and  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness." 

But  as  time  has  sped,  there  have  come  reforma- 
tions of  Christian  sentiments,  as  well  as  of  ideas. 
The  heart  of  man  has  been  touched  by  a  kindlier 
influence.  The  ages  of  force  are  melting  into  the 
millennium  of  love.  And  though  at  this  moment 
there  may  be  war  carried  on  by  many  Christian  na- 
tions, —  awful  thought,  when  we  reflect  on  the  pur- 
pose of  the  mission  of  the  Prince  of  peace  !  —  yet  it 
is  not  war  unrebuked  and  unquestioned ;  it  is  war 
that  is  condemned  by  the  disciples  of  Christ,  war 
that  is  prayed  against,  not  for ;  that  is  petitioned 
against,  that  still  clings  like  some  vile  and  guilty 
thing  to  our  skirts,  not  that  is  taken  up  into  the 
bosom,  and  carried  and  cherished  there  by  the 
warmth  of  the  heart.  It  is  something  to  protest 
against  evils  which  we  cannot  prevent.  And  this  is 
true  of  every  other  social  evil  and  wrong,  as  well  as 
of  war.  They  exist  not  in  peace,  as  of  old.  They 
are  condemned ;  they  are  met  by  the  free  press  and 
the  free  pulpit.  Aged  men  lift  up  their  trembling 
hands,  and  pray  that  they  may  be  banished  out  of 
the  sight  of  heaven  and  earth.  Little  children  early 
learn  to  lisp  their  names  with  horror,  and  to  shrink 
from  their  touch  as  from  a  serpent.     So  it  is  with 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  389 

intemperance,  and  slavery,  and  excess  of  every  kind, 
and  injustice  of  every  degree.  Christianity,  after 
being  preached  and  believed  for  so  many  centuries, 
as  a  religion  of  fear  and  of  force,  is  coming  to  be  re- 
ceived more  and  more  as  a  religion  of  love.  The 
Jupiter  of  mere  power,  the  Mars  of  violence,  the  Ve- 
nus of  sensual  indulgence,  and  Bacchus  the  rioter, 
are  moving  out  of  men's  hearts,  to  make  room  for 
the  incoming  of  th&  Father  of  love,  of  Christ  the 
pure  and  gentle,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  of  righteous- 
ness and  truth.  The  star  of  Bethlehem  is  rising 
higher  in  the  moral  firmament,  and  governing  more 
and  more,  by  its  heavenly  attraction  and  gravitation, 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  human  society.  Here,  also, 
"when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that  which 
is  in  part  will  be  done  away." 

3.  Christianity  is,  finally,  progressive  in  its  prac- 
tical influence  on  life  and  character.  This  follows  as 
an  inference  from  what  goes  before.  If  its  ideas  are 
slowly  received  in  their  whole  length  and  breadth 
and  depth,  and  its  sentiments  gradually  felt  by  the 
heart  in  all  their  transforming  life,  then  of  course 
conduct  and  character  come  even  behind  what  men 
think  and  feel,  because  their  thoughts  are  often  in- 
distinct, and  their  feelings  fluctuating  and  short- 
lived. The  long  divorce  between  religion  and  good- 
ness is  coming  to  an  end.  The  Christian  world  are 
opening  their  eyes  to  see  that  we  must  show  our 
faith  by  our  works  ;  that  not  to  him  that  says,  Lord, 
Lord  !  but  that  to  him  that  does  the  will  of  our  Fa- 

33* 


390  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

ther  in  heaven,  is  the  heavenly  portal  opened.  The 
institutions  of  society  are  reformed,  and  based  more 
on  the  law  of  right  and  love.  Old  abuses  are  totter- 
ing to  their  fall.  The  school-house  is  taking  the 
place  of  the  prison.  The  hospital  is  built  where 
once  stood  the  gibbet.  Men  have  got  tired  of  war, 
and  have  gone  to  work.  They  are  learning  that  the 
best  way  to  cure  evils  is  to  prevent  them.  The  liter- 
ature of  the  finest  geniuses  runs  more  in  a  Christian 
vein,  and  thus  the  pen  is  working  with  the  plough 
and  the  spindle  and  the  sail  to  make  a  happier 
earth.  The  question  more  and  more  rises  to  the 
heart  and  to  the  lips,  Why,  when  men  stay  in  this 
world  so  short  a  time,  should  they  take  so  much 
pains  to  make  one  another  unhappy?  They  are 
looking  more  to  see  how  gently  and  patiently  and 
sweetly  the  great  Exemplar  of  goodness  lived  on  the 
earth,  and,  amid  wrong  and  outrage  the  most  deadly, 
was  still  ever  scattering  flowers,  not  thorns,  in  the 
path  of  human  existence ;  was  giving  here  a  word 
of  comfort,  and  there  a  deed  of  kindness  ;  making  his 
miracles  mercies  ;  always  seeking  to  soften  and 
sweeten  sorrow ;  and  giving  up  life  and  all  things 
to  teach  men  to  deny  their  passions  and  love  one 
another. 

In  the  progress  of  his  divine  principles  over  the 
errors  of  the  past,  his  Gospel  is  now  aiming  to  cover 
and  control  the  whole  sphere  of  society,  to  be  the 
witness  and  friend  and  counsellor  of  man  in  what- 
ever station  he  may  be  placed.     Too  long  has  its 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  391 

practice  been  inconsistent,  and  its  profession  formal. 
Too  long  has  it  been  restricted  to  Sabbaths,  and 
shut  up  in  churches,  and  buried  in  forms  and  cere- 
monies. Too  long  has  life  and  life's  law  and  love 
been  put  asunder,  though  God  once  joined  them  to- 
gether. But  it  is  beginning  to  be  felt  that  the  place 
of  the  Christian  religion  is  everywhere,  and  its  time 
always,  and  its  rule  final ;  that  it  claims  a  man's 
heart  and  obedience  in  the  counting-room  or  the 
corn-field  as  well  as  in  the  church  ;  that  it  says  with 
celestial  mandate.  Love,  obey,  and  be  happy,  on 
Monday  or  Saturday,  as  on  Sunday ;  that  it  goes  ^ 
with  us  when  we  mingle  in  the  social  group  and 
raise  the  joyous  laugh,  as  much  as  when  we  follow, 
slow  and  sad  and  tearful,  the  bier  of  the  dead ;  that 
it  stirs  at  the  heart  when  we  hear  the  cry  of  distress, 
and  extend  the  hand  of  help,  as  when  we  burn  with 
enthusiasm  for  the  right  or  with  indignation  at  the 
wrong ;  that  it  smiles  in  our  greetings  of  happiness, 
and  flashes  through  our  reproof  of  sin  ;  that  it  as- 
cends the  halls  of  legislation  as  well  as  the  closets  of 
devotion ;  that  it  guides  the  casting  of  a  ballot  as 
much  as  the  giving  of  alms;  that  it  governs  the 
voice  of  the  speaker,  and  the  pen  of  the  writer,  and 
the  working  of  the  press,  and  the  spade  of  the  labor- 
er, and  the  needle  of  the  housewife  ;  that  it  teaches 
in  our  schools,  trades  in  our  shops,  toils  in  our  fields, 
muses  in  our  studies,  presides  in  our  assemblies,  in- 
spires our  social  scenes,  and  sits  chief  in  the  temples 
of  justice  and  cabinets  of  rulers,  as  mnch  as  at  the 


392  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

altars  of  worship ;  that,  in  short,  it  reigns  over  the 
arts  and  occupations  of  men  in  all  their  boundless 
variety ;  that  its  demands  are  always  and  every- 
where consistent,  and  that  it  resolves  with  a^beautiful 
simplicity  all  our  duties  into  supreme  love  to  God 
and  impartial  love  to  man.  Thus  universal,  practi- 
cal, and  progressive  is  Christianity  in  its  application 
to  the  conduct  and  character  of  mankind.  It  would 
make  the  whole  earth  one  sublime  sanctuary  of 
worship,  the  whole  of  life  a  holiday  of  peace  and 
brightness,  and  every  act  and  word  a  progress  of  the 
mind  in  truth,  the  heart  in  goodness,  and  the  life  in  , 
happiness.  Say  not  this  is  fable.  It  was  fact  once. 
It  took  form  and  body  in  the  Son  of  God.  It  was 
perfectly  verified  in  one,  imperfectly  in  many.  It 
may  be  here  and  now  in  these  hearts,  in  these  lives ; 
it  may  come  in  ever-increasing  beauty,  and  ever- 
brightening  hope,  and  holy  power.  It  is  the  divine 
life  of  the  soul,  for  which  our  heart  and  flesh  cry  out 
unto  God.  They  plead  with  us  not  to  torment  them 
any  more  with  our  excesses  and  sins,  with  our 
worldly  sorrows  and  mean  desires,  but  to  bow  to  the 
mild  yoke  of  Christ,  and  find  rest  unto  our  souls. 

The  doctrine  of  the  progressive  nature  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  its  ideas,  sentiments,  and  practice,  is  as  yet 
faintly  recognized  by  multitudes  of  the  disciples  of 
Jesus.  They  have  been  all  for  the  past,  and  not  for 
the  future ;  all  for  memory,  not  for  hope ;  all  for 
history,  not  for  prophecy.  They  have  distrust- 
ed changes.      They  have  mocked  at  reformations. 


CHRISTIANITY   PROGRESSIVE.  393 

They  have  tried  to  chain  the  world  where  it  was, 
when  it  would  revolve  forward  in  the  eternal  orbit  of 
moral,  as  well  as  planetary,  motion.  They  have  been 
unwilling  to  confess  that  they  might  be  in  error,  and 
that  it  was  not  wise  to  be  too  positive,  too  dogmati- 
cal, certainly  not  denunciatory  or  persecuting.  The 
mischievous  error  has  always  clung  to  the  Church, 
and  does  in  a  great  measure  to  this  day,  in  all  its  de- 
partments, that  it  must  claim  infallibility,  else  it 
could  not  gain  the  respect  and  obedience  of  man- 
kind. It  has  been  so  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Catholic,  and  it  is  almost  equally  so  in  the  Protes- 
tant world.  The  Church  has  not  been  willing  to 
have  a  Master,  but  has  wished  to  be  herself  master, 
and  worse  than  master,  —  tyrant.  The  spirit  has 
been,  I  am  certainly  right  and  you  are  certainly 
wrong ;  not,  I  believe  I  am  right  and  you  are  wrong, 
but  I  am  open  to  reason.  In  one  word,  the  effort 
has  been  to  deny  progress,  to  cry  down  reforms,  to 
chase  away  new  ideas,  to  fear  the  light ;  not  to  prove 
and  then  hold  fast,  but  to  hold  fast  first  and  always, 
and  not  prove  at  all ;  to  bow  to  the  ancienf  Fathers, 
whose  heads  were  often  nests  for  the  grossest  super- 
stitions ;  to  follow  great  men,  who  always  have  great 
failings;  to  subscribe  creeds,  which  the  few  have 
made  to  control  the  many ;  to  join  a  party,  instead 
of  following  Christ ;  to  be  called  by  some  sectarian 
and  unscriptural  title,  instead  of  taking  the  simple 
name  which  I  hope  we  shall  all  at  last  be  willing  to 
take  in   preference  to  any  other,  that  of  Christians. 


394  CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE. 

But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that 
which  is  in  part  will  be  done  away. 

Thanks  be  to  God !  we  live  in  a  land  and  an  age 
of  improvement.  Old  things  are  passing  away,  and 
all  things  are  becoming  new  in  the  light  of  a  happier 
and  holier  light  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  And 
though  there  are  spots  in  our  feasts  of  charity  and 
commemoration,  though  there  are  clouds  passing 
over  the  sun  of  our  peace  and  hope,  all  shall  yet  be 
well.  We  may  not  chide  the  slow  progress  of  Prov- 
idence, or  the  gradual  unfolding  of  Christianity. 
Such  is  the  law^  of  Him  with  whom  a  thousand 
years  are  as  one  day.  Let  us  work  in  the  power  and 
love  of  the  Gospel,  and  if  we  cannot  right  the  world, 
we  can  at  least  right  ourselves ;  if  we  cannot  regu- 
late nations,  we  can  govern  our  own  hearts  ;  if  we 
cannot  abolish  hoary  abuses,  we  can  show  a  lumi- 
nous spot  of  goodness  in  our  own  circle,  and  make 
our  households  sanctuaries  of  truth  and  love,  of  every 
grace  and  every  bliss,  and  thence  shed  abroad  a  light 
on  the  dark  world.  For  though  nations  should  apos- 
tatize, aifd  churches  sink  into  corruption  ;  though  the 
works  of  the  learned  should  perish,  and  the  Christian 
universities  be  closed;  though  Christianity  should 
leave  the  city  and  the  market-place,  country  and 
fields,  and  her  missionaries  should  come  home  from 
their  world-wide  philanthropy  and  renounce  the  sub- 
lime hope  of  Christianizing  the  world ;  though  our 
holy  faith  should  retire  from  the  gaze  of  men,  and 
we  should  follow  it  to  its  last  holy  retreat  on  earth. 


CHRISTIANITY    PROGRESSIVE.  395 

—  a  mother  kneeling  over  her  infant  child,  and  offer- 
ing up  to  the  Father  of  spirits  her  thanks  and  sup- 
plications, —  yet  even  there  would  we  catch  a  new 
spark  of  hope  and  a  new  inspiration  of  faith  ;  for  we 
should  remember  that  it  was  in  such  a  holy  scene, 
that,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  the  mother  of 
Bethlehem  prayed  over  the  babe  in  the  manger,  and 
blessed  her  Saviour-child.  For  thus  "  hath  God 
once  and  again  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world 
to  confound  the  wise,  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak 
things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  that  are 
mighty." 


DISCOURSE    XXIII 


WISDOM,  LAW,  AND  FAITH. 

FOR  WITH  THE  HEART  MAN  BELIEVETH  UNTO  RIGHTEOUSNESS,  AND 
WITH  THE  MOUTH  CONFESSION  IS  MADE  UNTO  SALVATION.  —  Eo- 

mans  x.  10. 

In  other  terms,  a  hearty  faith  is  essential  to  a 
right  character,  and  the  open  acknowledgment  of 
one's  religion  is  necessary  to  complete  moral  safety. 

Life  is  simply  a  balance  of  forces,  viewed  not  as  it 
respects  its  origin,  but  its  fact ;  and  if  this  equilibrium 
of  forces  be  lost,  life  gives  out,  as  a  taper  is  extin- 
guished by  the  wind.  If  we  rise  higher  than  the 
breath  of  the  body,  and  contemplate  this  wonder- 
working spiritual  life,  the  life  of  the  intellect,  of  the 
conscience,  and  of  the  heart,  we  discern  the  same 
balance  of  forces.  And  if  this  equipoise  be  lost,  the 
whole  character  is  twisted  awry,  and  its  fair  propor- 
tions destroyed.  We  have,  for  a  well-formed  human 
being,  a  distortion ;  some  powers  grown  monstrous, 
same  powers  shrivelled  up. 

I  go  upon  the  presumption  now,  that  every  person 
before  me  desires  to  be  true,  and  that  is  equivalent 


WISDOM,    LAW,   AND    FAITH.  397 

to  being  happy  in  the  long  run.  You  all  feel  the 
beauty  of  a  good  life ;  its  loveliness  wins  and  charms 
every  beholder ;  but  you  all  are  aware  of  its  difficulty. 
It  is  hard  to  keep  this  harp  of  thousand  strings  al- 
ways in  tune.  Only  one  has  done  it,  and  He,  the 
beloved  Son,  made  perfect  music  with  all  his  com- 
bined powers  unto  the  Good  Father. 

There  are  three  principal  forces,  or  creators  of  char- 
acter, which  at  different  periods  have  been  popular 
among  men.  They  are  all  good ;  there  is  a  need 
of  them  all  to  keep  the  whole  man  sound ;  but  the 
error  has  been,  that  either  one  was  sufficient  of  itself. 

These  three  are  Wisdom,  which  answers  to  the 
Mind,  Law,  which  refers  to  the  Conscience,  and 
Faith,  which  appeals  to  the  Heart.  The  three  most 
eminent  civilizations,  or  refinements  of  human  na- 
ture, have  been  based  upon  these  three  principles 
respectively ;  the  Grecian  upon  Wisdom,  the  He- 
brew upon  Law,  and  the  Christian  upon  Faith. 
Let  us  take  a  glance  at  each. 

1.  «  The  Greeks,''  said  St.  Paul,  "  seek  after  Wis- 
domP  This  was  a  just  and  comprehensive  general- 
ization, and  it  is  borne  out  by  all  we  know  of  that 
famous  people.  The  Romans,  though  they  had 
civil  and  military  possession  of  Juda3a  in  the  time  of 
our  Lord,  never  manifested  any  curiosity  to  know 
his  doctrine.  At  the  trial  of  Jesus,  Pilate,  in  reply 
to  a  remark  of  his  prisoner,  asked  in  a  careless  way. 
What  is  truth  ?  as  much  as  to  say.  Who  cares  any- 
thing about  so  fanciful  a  thing  as  truth, — a  thing  we 

84 


398  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

can  neither  eat,  drink,  nor  wear  ?  And^'lhen  he  went 
out,  without  stopping  to  get  an  answer  to  his  ques- 
tion. A  Greek  would  not  have  done  so,  but  he 
would  have  entered  into  a  philosophical  discussion, 
even  if  he  had  been  obliged  to  delay  the  trial.  But 
the  Romans  were  men  of  action,  not,  like  the  Greeks, 
men  of  thought;  so  we  lost  that  beautiful  answer 
which  Jesus  would  have  given  to  the  inquiry,  What 
is  truth  ?  The  Greeks,  in  fact,  did  once  come  spe- 
cially to  learn  what  they  could  about  Jesus.  "  And 
there  were  certain  Greeks  among  them  that  came 
up  to  worship  at  the  feast :  the  same  came  therefore 
to  Philip,  which  was  of  Bethsaida  of  Galilee,  and 
desired  him,  saying.  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus."  It  is 
a  significant,  characteristic  fact,  that  the  only  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Gentile  world  that  ever  came  to 
Jesus  were  Greeks.  Their  wise,  inquiring  spirit 
prompted  them.  It  was  the  passion  of  the  nation. 
We  have  another  revelation  of  this  character  when 
Paul  went  to  Athens.  "  For,"  it  is  said,  "  all  the 
Athenians,  and  strangers  which  were  there,  spent 
their  time  in  nothing  else,  but  either  to  tell  or  to 
hear  some  new  thing."  It  is  a  most  curious  fact, 
pointing  the  same  way,  that  the  New  Testament  it- 
self is  not  written  in  Hebrew,  as  we  should  suppose 
it  would  be,  because  the  men  w^ere  Jews  who  first 
preached  the  Gospel,  but  in  Greek,  the  language  of 
the  wise  and  the  understanding  people,  the  best 
language  then  on  earth. 
.    The  Greeks,  as  we  know  from  history  and  litera- 


WISDOM,   LAW,   AND    FAITH.  399 

ture,  as  well  as  from  the  Bible,  looked  deeper  into 
things  than  any  other  pagan  nation.  Their  institu- 
tions were  the  best,  their  fine  arts  led  the  world,  their 
philosophy  was  the  most  wise,  their  systems  of  edu- 
cation the  most  comprehensive,  and  in  some  respects 
better  than  ours  are  at  this  day,  their  literature  and 
science  the  most  perfect  of  the  ancient  world,  and 
their  morals  the  most  rational  and  conscientious. 
Even  their  fragments  are  richer  than  the  complete 
works  of  other  countries.  The  Greek  civilization, 
the  civilization  of  Wisdom,  sits  on  the  black  surface 
of  History,  like  a  beautiful  white  lily  on  the  water, 
fragrant,  and  with  face  upturned  to  heaven,  while 
around  and  below  are  dark  depths,  and  slime,  and 
weltering  wastes  of  weeds  and  water.  Who  shall 
speak  of  Socrates,  the  wise  moralist.  Homer,  the 
greatest  of  poets,  Plato,  the  profoundest  of  philoso- 
phers, and  the  best  of  their  wonderful  characters  in 
every  art  and  science,  without  a  thrill  of  admira- 
tion ?  The  human  intellect  culminated  in  fair 
Greece.  Singly,  her  geniuses  never  can  be  sur- 
passed. By  the  power  of  association,  men  can  now 
achieve  greater  wonders  in  society ;  but  whose  sin- 
gle mind  can  match  that  of  Plato,  whose  sagacity 
can  outreach  that  of  Socrates,  whose  arm  can  sur- 
pass that  of  Leonidas,  what  name  so  great  in  elo- 
quence as  that  of  Demosthenes  ? 

But  Wisdom  is  not  the  whole  of  life.  To  know 
is  great,  but  to  do  is  still  greater,  and  to  be  right 
greatest  of  all.     Knowing  and  doing  are  modes  of 


400  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

culture  for  the  higher  achievement  of  being.  The 
theory  of  life  and  the  universe,  that  we  can  or  ought 
to  know  everything,  is  a  false  one.  The  intellect  is 
the  chief  faculty  addressed  by  the  Grecian  Wisdom. 
They  had  no  good  culture  for  conscience  or  the 
heart.  Idolatry  was  their  religion,  slavery  and  war 
and  licentiousness  their  morals.  They  had  no  sense 
to  respond  to  the  Eternal  Law,  no  feeling  to  an- 
swer to  the  Eternal  Love,  only  the  thought  that 
was  cognizant  of  the  Eternal  Wisdom.  They  called 
the  world  itself  Kosmos,  order,  or  beauty,  as  its  high- 
est description. 

2.  But  another  civilization,  and  Revelation  came 
to  raise  the  human  family  a  step  higher.  The  cen- 
tral idea  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  was  Law. 
Truth  was  no  more  a  thought,  as  among  the  Greeks, 
but  a  command ;  and  man  was  not  only  to  know, 
but  to  do,  the  will  of  God.  The  world  is  no  longer 
a  place  for  philosophical  speculation  or  artistic  crea- 
tion alone,  but  an  arena  for  action.  The  chief  pow- 
er which  is  appealed  to  is  conscience.  All  parts  of 
the  Jewish  system  are  legal,  —  the  ceremonial,  the 
moral,  and  the  spiritual.  If  we  divide  religion  into 
two  parts,  one  of  restraint  and  the  other  of  excite- 
ment, the  Hebrew  code  represents  the  one  of  re- 
straint, and  the  form  in  which  it  is  put  is.  Thou  shalt 
not :  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  kill,  covet.  But  the  Chris- 
tian code  represents  the  one  of  excitement  to  all  the 
noblest  faculties  of  man:  Thou  shalt  love,  Thou  shalt 
believe,^ Thou  shalt  hope.     One  is  a  Law,  the  other 


WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH.  401 

is  a  Faith ;  one  is  addressed  chiefly  to  the  conscience 
of  man,  while  the  other  lays  hold  of  the  heart.  The 
Jewish  civilization  is  a  higher  one  in  its  great  moral 
power,  than  the  Greek  in  its  intellectual  wisdom  and 
beauty.  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Homer  are  mighty 
names ;  but  Abraham,  David,  and  Isaiah  are  spoken 
of  where  Greek  literature  never  penetrated,  and  they 
are  still  a  living  power  in  the  great  Christendom. 
So  much  stronger  and  nearer  the  heart  of  the  Infi- 
nite Providence,  and  more  victorious  over  change 
and  chance,  is  the  knowledge  of  the  right,  than  even 
the  greatest  wisdom  of  the  wise.  Not  that  man- 
kind reverence  philosophy  and  poetry  less,  but  mor- 
als and  religion  more.  But  even  the  knowledge  of 
the  Right  does  not  cover  the  whole  fact  of  the  uni- 
verse, any  more  than  the  knowledge  of  the  True ; 
there  is  still  wanting  the  great  additional,  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Good. 

The  forms  of  character  created  by  the  Hebrew 
civilization  are  as  sublime  as  those  of  the  Greeks 
are  beautiful.  If  the  people  of  Judaea  never  carved 
a  statue  or  wrote  an  epic,  they  could  yet  appeal  to 
the  justice  of  mankind,  and  say,  Witness  these  liv- 
ing forms  of  human  character  and  beauty,  superior 
to  the  Parthenon  or  the  statues  of  Phidias,  to  the 
Iliad  or  the  Odyssey.  The  pastoral  of  Ruth  is  more 
beautiful  than  any  eclogue  of  Theocritus  or  lyric  of 
Pindar.  Job  is  a  grander  poem  than  the  description 
of  battles  and  sieges  in  the  classics ;  Moses  is  supe- 
rior to  any  statesman  of  Greece;  and  Mary  is  a 

34* 


402  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

lovelier  conception  than  any  Juno  or  Venus  of  the 
Mythology. 

But  the  union  of  the  two,  the  sublime  and  the 
beautiful,  the  gentle  and  the  grand,  the  merciful  and 
the  majestic,  is  only  effected  under  the  faith  of  Jesus. 
In  general,  however,  his  followers  have  not  advanced 
beyond  the  Law ;  they  still  Judaize.  The  Catholics 
go  for  the  pompous  ceremonial,  kindred  to  the  mag- 
nificent temple  service  of  Mount  Zion.  Rome  is  the 
New  Jerusalem,  the  Pope  is  high-priest,  and  Catholi- 
cism, like  Judaism,  is  a  theocracy.  The  Calvinists 
go  for  the  payment  of  the  debt  of  sin  by  the  vica- 
rious atonement  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  therefore 
virtually  for  a  system  of  law.  Religion,  as  taught 
by  most  Christian  sects,  is  more  a  restraint  than  an 
excitement.  It  aims  more  to  suppress  the  lower 
propensities,  than  to  inspire  the  higher  sentiments. 
It  constantly  harps  upon.  Thou  shalt  not;  not  upon 
the  higher  tier  of  commands.  Thou  shalt.  The  Law 
has  emptied  its  seven  vials  into  Calvinism,  hard, 
obligatory,  ascetic  Calvinism ;  and  Calvinism  under- 
lies the  whole  Protestant  world,  as  the  primitive 
stratum.  To  be  sure,  the  system  is  called  one  of 
justification  by  faith,  but  it  is  really  one  of  law, 
rigid,  sinewy  law.  The  question  is  of  justification, 
not  of  righteousness ;  one  of  acquittal  or  condem- 
nation at  the  great  bar ;  not  of  good  works,  but  of 
one  good  work,  faith  ;  not  of  culture,  character,  spir- 
ituality, growth  in  a  divine  life.  God  is  the  Judge, 
not  the  Father.      Christianity  is  still  held  as  law, 


WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH.  403 

the  law  of  faith.  The  system  of  religion  is  made  a 
bargain,  a  commercial  transaction ;  so  much  salva- 
tion for  so  much  faith ;  so  much  done  by  Christ  to 
pay  for  so  much  that  we  have  misdone ;  so  much 
hope  and  interest  in  heaven  for  which  he  has  paid 
such  a  ransom.  The  hardest  parts  of  religion  are 
dwelt  upon,  —  the  cross,  the  agony  in  the  garden; 
the  woes  are  cherished,  the  warnings  are  reiterated. 
The  doctrines  of  a  personal  Devil  and  a  material 
hell  are  prominent.  If  there  is  anything  specially 
unpleasant  to  do,  that  is  seized  upon  as  the  first 
duty.  The  joy,  the  peace,  the  rest,  the  beauty,  the 
love,  the  heavenliness  of  Religion,  are  not  remem- 
bered. She  is  made  as  a  duenna,  old,  disagreeable, 
and  envious  of  the  happiness  of  youth,  who  dis- 
countenances recreations,  and  makes  conscience 
artificial ;  not  as  a  queen,  beautiful,  winning,  and 
gracious,  gaining  all  hearts  to  her  allegiance.  Its 
great  types  of  character  are  John  Calvin,  burning 
Servetus;  John  Knox,  denouncing  Mary;  Oliver 
Cromwell,  whose  soldiers  were  called  Ironsides ; 
Luther,  whose  words  were  called  a  battle ;  and  the 
stern  and  unbending  Puritans  of  New  England. 
Thus  the  two  steps  of  a  ceremonial  and  a  legal 
Christianity  have  been  taken. 

3.  There  is  therefore  still  remaining  a  higher 
form  of  the  character  and  life  of  man  than  either 
Grecian  Wisdom,  or  Hebrew  Law,  or  Catholicism, 
or  Calvinism,  as  thus  far  developed.  It  is  that  of 
Christian  Faith*     Wisdom  is  for  the  intellect,  Law 


404  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

for  the  conscience,  but  Faith  for  the  heart.  "  With 
the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness,  and 
with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation." 

The  others  were  more  in  the  character  of  earthly 
powers.  Knowledge  and  wisdom  range  among 
things  seen  and  temporal.  The  Law  did  not  call 
upon  the  world  to  come,  but  limited  its  sanctions  to 
the  present  life.  This  faith  opens  heaven  as  well  as 
earth,  and  establishes  a  correspondence  with  God 
and  eternity.  This  is  the  lightning-rod  on  which 
fires  descend  from  the  skies.  We  are,  if  we  may  so 
say,  no  more  dependent  upon  earthly  streams  to 
water  our  fields,  but  we  call  upon  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  "the  wandering  cisterns  of  the  air,"  to  shed 
down  their  sweet  rains,  and  the  universal  atmos- 
phere to  distil  her  gentle  dews.  ^ 

Many  are  inclined  to  make  faith  a  matter  of  the 
intellect  chiefly,  and  to  identify  it  with  conviction 
by  means  of  argument.  But  if  belief  upon  rational 
ground  be  a  part  of  faith,  yet  there  are  other  ele- 
ments of  confidence,  love,  and  trust,  which  enter  into 
the  composition.  Faith  of  this  kind  is  not  a  result 
reached  by  demonstration  alone,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
mathematical  problem,  but  a  state  arising  from  the 
moral  and  spiritual  character,  the  tone  of  feelings, 
and  the  complexion  of  one's  motives  and  purposes, 
quite  as  much  as  from  the  perspicacity  of  the  intel- 
lect. Thus,  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  many  did  not  be- 
lieve in  him  because  their  deeds  were  evil ;  and  they 
would  not  come  to  the  light,  lest  they  should  be  re- 
proved. 


WISDOM,   LAW,    AND    FAITH.  405 

But  the  proposition  of  Paul  stands  good,  "  With 
the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness."  The 
process  is  clear ;  —  the  great  motive-power  comes 
from  the  heart ;  faith  is  the  conductor  and  connector ; 
and  character,  righteousness,  is  the  end.  The  ab- 
surdity of  insisting  upon  either  one  exclusively  is 
instantly  seen,  when  we  arrange  the  parts  in  this 
order.  Suppose  we  insist  upon  righteousness,  good 
works,  moral  character,  a  good  life.  We,  as  Unitari- 
ans, are  thought  to  do  a  great  deal  of  this  work. 
But  righteousness,  good  works,  moral  character,  a 
good  life,  are  effects,  and  they  will  not  come,  "  like 
spirits  from  the  vasty  deep,"  without  a  cause. 
These  beautiful  and  superlative  excellences,  in 
favor  with  God  and  men  and  angels,  will  not  be, 
merely  by  calling  them.  We  might  as  well  call  for 
flowers  over  the  brown  herbage  of  winter;  but  no 
flowers  start  into  life  and  beauty,  until  mild  gales 
and  cheerful  suns  have  warmed  the  sod  and  made  it 
fragrant  and  beautiful.  So  it  is  equally  vain  to  in- 
sist on  the  first  term  of  the  proposition,  the  heart,  or 
the  second  term,  the  belief,  or  faith,  without  the 
others.  It  is  a  chain  of  which  no  link  can  be 
spared,  —  the  heart,  faith,  and  righteousness,  —  the 
heart  as  the  origin,  faith  as  the  means,  and  right- 
eousness as  the  end.  This  is  productive  of  a  superior 
type  of  character  to  that  formed  either  by  Wisdom 
or  Law. 

I  hear  from  every  church  around  us  loud  calls  to 
Faith.      But  from  one  it  is  faith  in  the  Pope,  as 


406  WISDOM,    LAW,   AND    FAITH. 

the  vicegerent  of  the  Lord ;  in  the  Virgin  Mary,  as 
the  mother  of  God  ;  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church, 
as  instrumental  of  salvation.  And  from  another,  it 
is  faith  in  a  set  of  doctrines,  instead  of  a  set  of  per- 
sons, as  in  the  other  case ;  faith  in  the  Trinity,  in 
Total  Depravity,  and  the  Atonement;  and  none  is 
allowed  to  be  recognized  as  a  Christian  until  he  has 
subscribed  such  a  creed.  And  from  another,  it  is 
faith  in  the  Church,  in  her  liturgy  and  her  articles, 
in  the  decisions  of  her  councils  and  bishops.  And 
from  others,  it  is  faith  in  some  great  leader  ;  among 
the  Lutherans  in  Luther,  among  the  Calvinists  in 
Calvin,  among  the  Methodists  in  Wesley,  among 
the  Campbellites  in  Campbell.  Let  me  not  utter 
words  of  reproach  against  any  of  these  faiths. 
Blessed  be  God  for  even  the  lowest  rounds  of  the 
ladder  on  which  his  children  may  climb  upward  into 
greater  light  and  liberty !  Are  not  these  all  groping 
their  way  towards  the  light,  if  haply  they  may  feel 
after  it  and  find  it  ?  But  what  I  would  say  is.  Have 
we  not  dwelt  long  enough  amongst  these  beggarly 
elements  ?  Let  us  arise  and  go  unto  Jesus.  Let  us, 
as  Christians,  I  would  say  to  all  these  brethren,  drop 
all  the  intermediate  articles  of  the  creed,  and  go 
directly  to  the  fountain-head,  to  the  Father. 

The  saving  faith  is  not  a  faith  of  the  head,  so 
much  as  a  faith  of  the  heart.  It  is  not  in  just  such 
doctrines,  or  just  such  ceremonies,  or  just  such  a 
theology,  that  its  prevailing  efficacy  resides,  but  in 
its  hold  upon  the  spiritual  truths  of  Christianity,  in 


WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH.  407 

the  nearness  with  which  it  brings  us  to  God,  and 
in  the  tenderness  and  vividness  with  which  it  raises 
the  holy  image  of  Jesus  to  our  inner  vision  and  en- 
shrines it  in  our  deepest  love,  and  in  the  solemn 
awe  and  joy  with  which  it  arches  over  us  the  mighty 
heavens  of  Infinitude  and  Eternity,  of  which  these 
visible  skies  are  but  a  fugitive  scarf  and  scroll.  He 
who  has  this  trust  of  the  heart  in  God  and  goodness, 
in  Jesus  and  eternal  life,  will  not  easily  be  discour- 
aged, will  not  lightly  give  up  the  battle  of  life.  Mili- 
tary figures,  and  those  taken  from  the  Grecian  games 
and  gymnastics,  are  often  used  by  the  Apostle  Paul, 
not  because  he  approved  of  war,  or  drank  aught  of 
its  spirit  of  diabolism,  but  because  he  saw  that  the 
hopeful,  courageous,  enterprising,  determined,  un- 
flinching, and  trusting  heart  with  which  the  com- 
batant cast  himself  into  the  Olympic  arena,  or  with 
which  the  soldier  marched  to  the  battle-field,  was 
needed  by  the  Christian  in  fighting  in  a  nobler 
cause,  and  winning  a  better  victory. 

And  when  I  look  around  me  in  society,  or  over  the 
face  of  the  world,  or  into  the  folds  of  my  own  breast, 
1  see  everywhere  the  need  of  this  faith  of  the  heart, 
which  works  righteousness.  Grecian  Wisdom  is 
not  sufficient;  a  mere  literary  Christianity  may 
amuse  the  taste,  and  gratify  the  understanding,  but 
it  cannot  enlist  our  whole  nature,  and  make  all  our 
life  sacred  and  beautiful,  as  if  we  were  living  in  the 
very  antechamber  and  on  the  threshold  of  heaven. 
Hebrew  Law  is  not  sufficient,  —  a  merely  legal,  cal- 


408  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

culating,  condemnatory,  and  police  Christianity 
cannot  avail  us.  Under  the  ceremonial  law  of 
Rome,  the  passions  of  baron  and  monk  and  nun 
boiled  like  ^tna;  and  under  the  doctrinal  law  of 
Protestantism,  the  gulf-stream  of  war,  slavery,  in- 
temperance, lust,  fraud,  rushes  like  a  torrent,  and 
carries  treaties  between  nations,  compromises  among 
states,  resolves  of  duty,  and  principles  of  truth  away 
before  it,  like  feathers  upon  the  cataract  of  Niagara. 
What,  we  ask,  shall,  what  can,  stay  these  awful 
powers  of  evil,  and  catch,  and  bridle,  and  harness 
again  the  fiery  coursers  of  the  sun,  who  have  run 
away,  and  set  one  third  of  the  heavens  on.  fire  ? 

I  reply,  nothing  great,  nothing  splendid,  or  impos- 
ing, but  so  simple  a  thing  as  Christian  faith;  the 
faith  of  the  heart ;  the  faith  which  worketh  by  love, 
and  overcometh  the  world,  and  believeth  unto  right- 
eousness. Any  faith  which  stops  short  of  righteous- 
ness as  its  goal,  will  soon  cease  to  be  a  faith  at  all. 
But  the  working  faith  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on, 
and  acts  and  reacts  like  the  auricle  and  the  ventricle 
of  the  heart. 

How  imperative  is  the  need  of  this  faith  I  need  not 
say,  for  your  own  hearts  can  tell  it  better  than  my 
words  !  You  know,  deep  down  in  your  souls,  where 
no  eye  but  that  of  Great  Heaven  can  look,  how 
many  fears  and  struggles,  how  many  doubts  and 
questionings,  you  have ;  how  hardly  the  heart  some- 
times keeps  whole  and  keeps  strong,  though  all  the 
while  you  are  moving  about  among  your  fellow-men 


WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH.  409 

with  a  placid  demeanor,  as  if  no  great  controversy 
was  going  on  within. 

In  youth,  when  the  reality  of  life,  its  hard  sense  of 
struggle  and  discipline,  first  breaks  on  the  conscious- 
ness, and  the  gay  morning  clouds  of  illusion  arc 
burnt  up  by  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  and  the 
solemn  duties  and  the  great  trials  and  the  mighty 
dangers  roll  in  like  billows  upon  the  soul,  what 
shall  stay  the  heart  but  faith,  a  filial  trust  in  God, 
confidence  in  Jesus  as  able  and  willing  to  save  all 
who  come  unto  him,  and  give  rest  unto  the  soul  ? 

And  when  the  sun  of  life  rides  high  in  the  heav- 
ens, and  body  and  soul  are  strong,  and  life  and  busi- 
ness and  pleasure  and  ambition,  and  a  thousand 
cares,  prey  like  vultures  on  the  mind,  and  manhood  is 
like  Prometheus  on  the  rock,  chained,  and  devoured, 
what  shall  smooth  the  anxious  brow,  and  steady  the 
tempted  virtue,  and  say  to  every  Satan  of  the  host. 
Get  thee  behind  me,  and  invoke  every  virtue  and 
every  grace,  and  call  to  every  better  influence,  Come 
and  save  me,  —  do  not  let  a  soul  drown  in  worldli- 
ness,  in  sin ;  still  keep  me  out  of  the  deep  waters, 
and  in  the  open  air,  and  under  the  heavens,  that  I 
may  live  and  breathe  and  not  die !  What  but  a 
pillar  of  faith  firm  as  adamant  can  maintain  up- 
right the  soul  of  manhood  in  a  crooked  and  evil  gen- 
eration ? 

And  when  age  draws  near,  and  friends  are  gone, 
and  the  clouds  of  glory  again  assemble  around  the 
departing,  as  they  did  around  the  rising  sun,  but  dark, 

35 


410  WISDOM,    LAW,    AND    FAITH. 

portentous  night  now,  and  not  a  brighter  noon,  as 
then,  gathers  in  the  face  of  heaven,  and  frowns  over 
the  earth,  what  but  the  star  of  faith  can  light  the 
midnight  sky,  and  speak  of  another  and  brighter 
world  than  this,  hanging  aloft  in  God's  great  uni- 
verse, and  showing  real  and  true  as  the  pillared  fir- 
mament itself  ? 

And  when  friend  after  friend  departs,  and  dear 
and  beautiful  children  are  removed  by  death,  when 
sorrow  and  sadness  and  pain  are  the  daily  guests  in 
our  houses,  and  gather  around  the  hospitable  board 
and  the  dear  domestic  altar,  I  need  not  speak  of  the 
worth  of  this  faith  of  the  heart,  for  it  is  the  sufficient 
comforter  and  strengthener.  This  is  a  consolation 
that  all  the  floods  of  grief  cannot  drown,  and  that 
all  the  furnaces  of  affliction  cannot  consume. 

And  when,  finally,  we  look  abroad,  and  survey  the 
condition  of  the  world,  behold  Christian  Europe, 
pausing  for  a  moment,  before  she  plunges  into  an 
ocean  of  human  blood,  and  a  hell  of  human  pangs 
and  griefs  and  woes,  by  a  general  war ;  or  turn  to 
Asia,  and  hear  the  fall  of  ancient  monarchies,  re- 
sounding through  the  world,  like  the  crash  of  gigan- 
tic trees  in  the  depths  of  the  forest;  or  return  to 
America,  apparently  ready,  by  the  act  of  her  highest 
eouncil,  to  strike  a  two-edged  blow  of  iniquity,  and 
deal  the  poor  Indian  a  new  insult  and  injury,  and 
rivet  a  new  chain  on  the  poor  slave;  —  when  storms 
and  shipwrecks  on  the  ocean,  and  hurricanes  on  the 
land,  and  unprecedented  conflagrations  and  accidents 


WISDOM,   LAW,   AND    FAITH.  411 

in  the  cities,  seem  but  the  outward  emblems  of  the 
terrible  crimes  and  sins  of  mankind,  and  nature 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  for  her  children ;  — 
what  shall  reassure  the  soul  that  the  Great  Provi- 
dence is  still  working  for  good,  that  Infinite  Justice 
and  Mercy  have  not  deserted  the  throne  of  the  uni- 
verse, but  the  faith  of  the  heart,  the  filial  trust  in 
God  as  our  Heavenly  Father  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  ? 


DISCOURSE   XXIV 


I  WOULD  NOT  LIVE  ALWAY. 
I  WOULD   NOT  LIVE  ALWAY.  —  Job  vii.  16. 

The  Book  of  Job  is  a  poem  of  the  dramatic  kind. 
It  may  have  been  founded  on  the  history  of  some 
individual  known  to  the  writer ;  or  it  may  have  been, 
as  many  learned  divines  have  supposed,  a  fable  or 
allegory,  in  which  all  the  facts  are  not  necessarily 
true,  but  were  imagined,  to  adorn  and  enforce  the 
moral.  The  leading  object  of  the  book  is  to  vindi- 
cate the  ways  of  God  to  man,  to  show  that  adversity 
is  not  always  the  criterion  of  wickedness,  and  that 
the  discipfine  of  life  will  finally  result  in  the  greatest 
good  of  those  who  are  exercised  thereby.  Some  of 
the  noblest  strains  of  poetry^  and  piety,  the  purest 
bursts  of  eloquence,  are  found  in  this  book.  It  has 
also  many  of  those  epigrammatic  sentences  which 
oondense  in  a  single  line  extensive  and  profound 
truths. 

The  suffering  hero  of  the  work,  having  been  visited 
by  a  succession  of  the  most  overwhelming  trials,  by 
which  his  children  were  all  killed,  his  flocks   and 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  413 

herds  destroyed,  and  his  servants  slain,  was  reduced 
to  such  a  state  of  grief  and  depression,  as  finally, 
though  he  bore  up  manfully  at  first  against  the  tide 
of  woes,  to  curse  the  day  of  his  birth,  and  pray  for 
death  as  a  release  from  his  sorrows.  His  friends, 
although  they  came  ostensibly  to  condole  with  him, 
yet  rather  aggravated  than  soothed  his  troubled 
mind,  by  their  sharp  reproofs  and  unjust  surmises. 
The  despairing  man,  seemingly  frowned  upon  both 
by  God  and  man,  sitting  in  ashes,  clothed  in  sack- 
cloth, an  object  of  suspicion,  and  not  of  pity,  to  his 
friends,  describes  in  the  most  vivid  manner  his  utter 
and  abject  grief.  He  loathed  his  life  itself,  and 
longed  for  death.  In  this  state  of  mind  he  uttered 
the  words,  "  I  would  not  live  alway  "  :  words  which, 
as  used  by  him,  might  signify  his  preference  of  im- 
mediate death,  but  words  also  capable  of  a  modified 
and  Christian  sense,  —  that  this  life  would  be  unde- 
sirable, if  it  were  perpetual ;  that  it  would  be  better 
to  die  than  to  live  here  always,  —  better,  for  so  is  a 
wider,  an  infinite  range  given  to  hope,  —  better,  for 
the  soul  finds  not  room  here  for  her  full  growth, — 
better,  for  friends  are  fast  leaving  us  for  some  other 
state,  and  we  should  be  left  solitary,  —  better,  for  the 
body  would  prove  but  a  broken  and  crazy  abode  for 
its  indwelling  inhabitant,  —  better,  for  such  is  the 
will  of  Heaven,  and  that  will,  we  have  no  doubt,  is 
good  and  right  and  kind  beyond  all  our  conceptions. 
We  would  not  live  always;  yet  it  is  not  because 
there  is  not  much  peace  and  joy  allotted   us  here. 

35* 


414  I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

"We  have  no  sympathy  with  that  sour,  repining,  self- 
torturing  mood,  that  selects  and  combines  all  that  is 
dark  and  sad  and  discouraging  in  the  present  exist-' 
ence,  and  calls  it  a  picture  of  human  life.  It  is  an 
unchristian  mood.  Nobody  ought  to  indulge  it.  It  is 
a  false  view.  "  True,"  as  has  been  said,  "  there  are 
shadows  as  well  as  lights,  clouds  as  well  as  sunshine, 
thorns  as  well  as  roses  ;  but  it  is  a  happy  world  after 
all."  It  is  a  fair  and  beautiful  world,  shaped  with 
divine  skill,  painted  with  hues  out  of  heaven,  per- 
vaded by  all  that  is  most  sublime  and  glorious, — by 
the  spirit  of  God  himself.  It  is  full  of  beneficence 
to  all  creatures  that  inhabit  it.  It  is  a  world  that 
has  more  day  than  night,  more  suns  than  storms, 
more  health  than  sickness,  more  prosperity  than  ad- 
versity, more  life  than  death.  Is  it  for  man,  the  sole 
creature  whose  mind  can  trace  the  benevolent  Author 
of  all,  to  stop  his  ears  that  he  may  not  hear  the  mu- 
sic, and  shut  his  eyes  that  he  may  not  see  the  beauty, 
that  reigns  over  this  glorious  creation  ?  He  cannot 
move  or  think,  but  what  he  experiences  the  arrange- 
ments of  the  Divine  love.  The  minutest  parts  of  his 
animal  frame,  the  pores  of  the  skin,  too  small  for 
the  naked  eye,  the  tiny  valves  of  invisible  blood- 
vessels, and  the  thpusand-fold  adaptations  and  har- 
monies that  run  into  every  part  of  his  complex  con- 
stitution, are  so  many  tongues  to  rebuke  the  discon- 
tented and  complaining.  Shall  man,  this  miracle  of 
mercy,  this  wonder  of  God's  care,  this  concentration 
of  his  kind  and  wise  laws  and  provisions,  be  impa- 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  415 

tient  of  the  life  so  kindly  given,  and  so  wonderfully 
and  fearfully  sustained  ?  Is  there  nothing  to  love, 
liothing  to  live  for  here,  that  one  should  sigh  to  de- 
part hence  ?  Are  there  no  bright  and  sunny  days, 
no  social  delights,  no  glad  hopes,  no  springs  of  joy 
on  the  earth  ?  Has  childhood  no  glee,  youth  no 
pleasures,  manhood  no  happiness,  age  no  dignity, 
that  we  should  be  discontented,  and  chafe  and  fret 
against  our  heritage  and  lot?  There  is  much  to  en- 
joy here,  much  to  do,  much  to  interest  us,  much  to 
live  for,  and  much  to  love.  It  is  not  because  there 
are  not  multitudes  of  blessings  strewn  along  life's 
path,  that  we  would  not  live  here  alway,  for  "it  is 
a  happy  world  after  all." 

We  would  not  live  here  alway ;  yet  not  because 
there  are  trials  and  sufferings.  True,  we  meet  with 
much  to  dishearten  and  sadden  us.  The  wearing 
anxieties,  the  corroding  cares,  the  sense  of  unsatis- 
factoriness  even  when  we  have  attained  our  object, 
the  griefs  and  pains  that  often  take  us  by  surprise, 
and  often  oppress  us  for  days  and  years,  —  if  they 
were  all  brought  together  in  one  view,  and  it  were 
forgotten  how  many  alleviations  and  respites  there 
were,  how  many  mercies  mingled  with  sorrows, 
what  strength  given  for  the  occasion,  what  kind  re- 
membrance of  our  frames,  and  what  tempering  of  the 
wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,  the  picture  would  be  a  black 
one  indeed.  But  when  we  further  reflect  on  the 
end  of  these  chastenings,  the  wise  purposes  they 
serve   in  our  moral  education,   the  blessed  results 


416  I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

they  accomplish  for  our  minds  and  hearts,  —  when 
we   understand   tharfc    present    evil   is   future   good, 
that  sorrow  has  a  mild  angelic  face,  only  it  is  hidden 
behind  a  mask,  that  we  shall  by  and  by  rejoice  that 
we  were  tried  and  purified  in  the  furnace  of  afflic- 
tion,—  then  we  can  bow  contentedly  to  the  appoint- 
ments of  God's  love.     We  can   feel  that  it  is  good 
to  live,  though,  in  the  words  of  poetry,  "  storm  after 
storm  rises  dark  o'er  the  way  "  ;  that  a  truly  Chris- 
tian heart,  which  sees  the  hand  of  Heaven  in  all,  will 
never  lift  a  violent  hand  against  life,  and  rush  pre- 
maturely into  another  state  before  the  discipline  of 
this  has  terminated.     If  good  was  not  educed  out  of 
evil,  evil  would  be  a  problem  beyond  our  power  to 
solve ;  but  now  we  understand  its  uses,  we  can  wel- 
come it  as  the  sick  do  the  bitter  drug  that  is  to  assist 
Nature  against  her  foes,  as  the  wounded  the  lancet 
that  shall  remove  the  now  useless   and   dangerous 
limb.  Though  troubled,  then,  by  earthly  ills,  they  shall 
not  extinguish  our  love  of  life,  or  make  us  murmur 
under  its  wholesome  corrections,  its  blessed  ministries 
and  teachings.     We  will  say,  Let  the  Supreme  Will 
be  done  ;  if  life  is  spared,  we  will  rejoice  in  it ;  if  it 
is  cut  off,  we  will  be  resigned  ;  if  it  is  happy,  we  will 
be  grateful ;  if  it  is  vexed  and  saddened,  we  will  not 
suffer  ourselves  to  be  disquieted,  but  commit  all  to 
Him  who  judgeth  and  ordereth  all  righteously. 

Though  we  would  not  live  alway,  it  is  not,  then, 
because  life's  cup  has  no  sweetness  to  delight  us, 
nor  is  it  because  it  has  in  it  bitterness  and  tears. 


I   WOULD    NOT   LIVE    ALWAY.  417 

The  hopes,  friendships,  and  privileges  of  existence 
are  great,  substantial,  and  noble  things.  They  yield 
pure,  elevated,  and  entrancing  enjoyments.  We 
would  live  for  what  of  good  and  fair  and  affection- 
ate and  true  there  is  of  the  present  lot.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  would  live  also  for  its  purifying  af- 
flictions, its  humbling  reverses,  its  spiritualizing  be- 
reavements, and  healthful,  though  severe,  discipline. 
But  though  we  would  live,  and  live  contentedly  and 
joyfully,  yet  would  we  not  live  alway  here. 

For  the  whole  arrangement  of  things,  and  the 
whole  constitution  of  man,  show  that  this  world 
could  not  be  a  final  home  for  us, — that  we  could 
not  endure  to  be  immortal  below.  Even  the  most 
worldly  would  tire  of  the  world,  if  they  believed 
that  they  must  abide  in  it  always.  And  all  the  oc- 
cupations of  society  would  grow  wearisome  indeed, 
if  they  were  to  be  continued  for  ever  by  the  same 
persons.  The  husbandman  would  not  be  contented 
to  till  his  fields  through  eternity.  The  mechanic 
would  not  be  satisfied  to  look  forward  to  nothing 
but  his  daily  labor.  The  merchant  would  grow  tired 
of  trading,  and  the  mariner  of  sailing,  and  the  teach- 
er of  teaching,  and  the  physician  of  healing,  and  the 
lawyer  of  arguing,  and  the  clergyman  of  preaching, 
if  all  did  not  anticipate  a  great  consummation  of  the 
present  state ;  if  all  did  not  view  their  pursuits  as 
limited,  and  not  perpetual,  —  as  introductory  to  some- 
thing else ;  and  hope  would  whisper  something  bet- 
ter and  nobler  and  more  satisfying  than  aught  of 
earthly  labor,  care,  possession,  or  pleasure. 


418  I    WOULD   NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

The  body,  too,  —  exquisite  in  its  construction,  but 
frail,  feeble,  fatigued, — this  could  not  be  immortal 
here.  Immortal,  did  I  say  ?  Let  but  forty  years 
pass  over  it,  and  it  has  already  reached  its  vigor,  and 
begun  to  decline ;  and  when  eighty  have  shed  their 
frosts  and  snows,  and  suns  and  rains,  upon  it,  what 
a  bleached,  tottering,  defenceless,  crazy  tabernacle  it 
is !  The  most  stalwart  form  is  bowed,  the  brightest 
eye  is  dimmed,  the  acutest  hearing  is  dulled,  and  the 
hand  that  was  once  mighty  in  battle,  mighty  in 
labor,  is  weak  as  an  infant's.  So  vividly  true  are  the 
sacred  words :  "  The  days  of  our  years  are  threescore 
years  and  ten  ;  and  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be 
fourscore  years,  yet  is  their  strength  labor  and  sor- 
row :  for  it  is  soon  cut  off,  and  we  fly  away."  Man's 
physical  constitution  enters,  then,  a  protest  against 
his  living  here  alway.  The  handful  of  dust  that  was 
caught  up  and  fashioned  marvellously  together,  and 
to  which  the  fluids  of  the  earth  and  the  gases  of  the 
air  brought  their  willing  contributions,  and  formed 
these  living  temples  of  flesh,  already  is  hasten- 
ing impatiently  back  to  the  elements  from  which  it 
sprang.  Beauty  fades,  strength  decays,  the  organs 
refuse  to  do  their  office,  and  the  outside  garment, 
which  man  wore  and  walked  about  in,  he  throws 
aside  into  the  grave,  and  mounts  himself  above. 
This  is  the  ordination  of  Heaven,  and  wise  and  be- 
neficent. No  form  of  matter  is,  or,  so  far  as  we  see, 
could  be,  eternal.  If  our  bodies  had  been  made  out 
of  the  hardest  and  most  indestructible  n^jaterials,  — 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  419 

the  bones  iron,  the  flesh  gold,  the  nerves  asbes- 
tos,—  they  would  decay  as  now,  and  probably 
faster.  For  the  very  flexibility  and  softness  of  the 
tissues  of  the  present  human  system  adapt  it  to  the 
sphere  it  moves  in,  and  its  very  frailty  makes  its  pos- 
sessor the  more  alert  against  all  that  would  injure  or 
destroy  it.  Well  and  wisely  has  the  great  Architect 
framed  his  work,  and  if  it  decays,  he  designed  it 
should  decay,  and  we  should  be  acting  counter  to 
his  will  if  we  wished  it  to  endure  for  ever.  We 
would  not  live  alway,  then,  for  our  physical  consti- 
tution remonstrates  against  such  a  wish  as  an  ever- 
lasting abode  on  this  spot  of  earth. 

But  this  is  not  all.  We  would  not  live  alway,  for 
friends  have  left  us  and  gone  hence.  There  is  no 
one  but  has  some  such  treasure  beyond  the  tomb, — 
venerable  fathers,  affectionate  mothers,  pure  sisters, 
noble-hearted  brothers,  and  the  long  household  train, 
husbands  and  wives  and  children,  —  beautiful,  inno- 
cent children,  —  all  gone  home,  and  we  left,  perhaps, 
among  strangers.  From  the  bright  and  holy  scenes 
of  the  upper  world,  from  mansions  of  rest  and  glory, 
from  bowers  of  beauty  and  bliss,  they  bend  to  invite 
us  to  ascend  and  dwell  with  them.  They  are  mag- 
nets in  heaven,  and  though  the  affections  of  our 
hearts,  like  the  needle,  disturbed  by  earthly  things, 
may  vibrate  this  way  and  that,  yet  in  the  end  they 
are  constant  to  the  great  law  of  attraction,  and  faith- 
ful to  the  pole  of  heaven.  They  draw  us  up  to 
themselves.     And  although  life  immortal  were  prom- 


420  *      I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

ised  us  here,  yet  should  we  be  reluctant  to  accept 
the  gift,  and  dwell  for  ever  away  from  those  we  have 
known  and  loved.  That  the  future  state  is  to  be  a 
social  state,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Our  nature 
points  to  it,  our  present  condition  indicates  it,  and 
if  the  Scriptures  have  not  asserted,  they  have  im- 
plied it.  Our  social  nature,  therefore,  would  not 
permit  us  willingly  to  live  here  alway;  and  thus 
forego,  not  only  the  intercourse  of  departed  friends, 
but  of  departed  worthies  of  all  ages  and  nations. 
Noble  beings,  who  have  toiled  and  suffered  here,  and 
to  whom  we  owe  much  of  the  happiness  and  the 
hope  of  life,  patriots  and  philanthropists,  prophets 
and  reformers,  apostles  and  martyrs,  and,  leading  all, 
the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith,  —  these  throw 
a  glory  and  bliss  into  the  idea  of  the  future  state,  and 
render  us  impatient  of  any  other  destiny  than  that 
of  ascending  to  those  bright  immortal  abodes,  and 
that  pure  and  blessed  society  of  the  just  and  good 
and  true  of  all  time.  We  would  not  live  alway, 
then ;  for  our  social  nature,  affections  stronger  than 
death,  pant  for  development  and  gratification  such 
as  earth  cannot  afford.     As  the  poet  has  sung :  — 

"  Who,  who  would  live  alway  ?  away  from  his  God, 
Away  from  yon  heaven,  that  blissful  abode, 
Where  the  rivers  of  pleasure  flow  o'er  the  bright  plains, 
And  the  noontide  of  glory  eternally  reigns ; 
Where  the  saints  of  all  ages  in  harmony  meet. 
Their  Saviour  and  brethren  transported  to  greet ; 
While  the  anthems  of  rapture  unceasingly  roll, 
And  the  smile  of  the  Lord  is  the  feast  of  the  soul  ?  " 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  421 

We  would  not  live  alway  in  the  present  state,  for 
our  intellectual  nature  demands  a  finer  culture,  a 
wider  range,  and  fewer  lets  and  hinderances,  than  it 
has  here.  We  boast,  perhaps,  of  knowledge  and 
education,  and  think  ourselves  wise,  nor  frankly  ac- 
knowledge even  to  ourselves  how  very  ignorant  we 
are.  But,  occupied  as  most  are  with  manual  labor, 
oppressed  with  cares,  and  concerned  to  know  what 
they  shall  eat,  what  they  shall  drink,  and  wherewithal 
they  shall  be  clothed,  the  intellect  remains  unculti- 
vated and  benighted.  The  taste  is  not  refined,  the 
judgment  is  not  balanced,  the  reason  is  not  exalted 
and  quickened,  the  imagination  is  not  enlivened  and 
chastened.  The  powers  of  the  mind  begin  to  unfold 
here,  and  admirable  opportunities  are  afforded  to 
many  to  develop  and  discipline  them.  But,  com- 
pared with  their  capability  of  unlimited  expansion 
and  everlasting  progress,  how  little  is  done  !  How 
little  we  know  of  ourselves,  of  nature,  providence, 
man,  or  God  I  How  difficult  it  is  for  us  to  grasp  in 
our  puny  faculties  the  vast  truths  of  Science,  Art, 
and  Being !  And  when  the  most  learned  man  on 
earth  had  given  a  list  of  all  his  attainments,  how 
much  would  still  be  left  out,  of  which  he  would  be 
totally  ignorant!  And,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  it  would 
always  be  thus,  if  our  life  were  prolonged  to  ever  so 
great  a  period  here.  So  have  Newton,  Mackintosh, 
Scott,  and  others,  given  their  testimony.  This  state 
does  not  admit  of  the  full  growth  of  any  power  and 
faculty  of  the   mind.     And  in  his  efforts  to  educate 

36 


422  I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

himself  and  acquire  vast  stores  of  learning,  how 
often  does  the  ambitious  student  prostrate  his  health 
and  strength,  and  sink  into  the  grave  prematurely,  a 
victim  to  his  noble,  but  injudicious  efforts  !  We 
would  not  live  alway  in  a  world  that  thus  cramps 
and  narrows  the  scope  and  growth  of  the  immortal 
mind.  No  one  who  has  tasted  the  pleasures  of 
knowledge,  the  elevation  and  dignity  of  intellectual 
pursuits,  and  the  means  which  are  thus  supplied  for 
the  culture  of  our  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  but 
what  longs  for  a  less  embarrassed  state  in  which  to 
prosecute  the  work  of  education  and  improvement. 
The  slow  progress  we  make,  the  often  baffled,  al- 
ways imperfect  efforts  after  advancement,  the  mixed 
condition  of  truth  and  error,  —  all  these,  and  many 
other  drawbacks  upon  our  intellectual  progress, 
would  render  us  dissatisfied  under  the  prospect  of 
living  here  alway.  We  see  the  world  lying  in  igno- 
rance and  error.  It  would  be  a  melancholy  thought, 
that  so  many  never-dying,  intellectual  natures  were 
to  dwell  here  in  this  state  for  ever.  We  wish  for 
ourselves  and  our  race,  in  the  good  time  of  our  Fa- 
ther's will,  a  removal  to  a  condition  better  fitted 
than  this  to  refine,  unfold,  and  exalt  our  mental 
powers,  in  accordance  with  the  manifest  design  of 
their  Author,  and  their  own  ceaseless  aspirations. 

We  would  not  live  alway,  for  we  seek  a  nearer 
communion  with  Jesus  and  with  God,  higher  excel- 
lence and  virtue,  a  greater  expansion  of  the  moral 
and   spiritual  part  of  our  nature.      Much  may  be 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  423 

done,  indeed,  in  this  state.  We  would  not  be 
guilty  of  undervaluing  all  that  has  been  provided 
for  these  ends.  We  would  not  forget  the  illustrious 
forms  of  virtue  that  have  adorned  even  this  sinful 
world,  —  the  integrity  of  a  Washington,  the  benevo- 
lence of  a  Howard,  the  piety  of  a  Fenelon  ;  —  they 
show  what  has  been,  they  show  what  may  be  done. 
But  before  all  souls  there  is  an  ideal  of  goodness 
which  they  never  realize  here,  an  ideal  that  con- 
stantly rises  as  they  rise,  and  glows  more  purely 
and  brightly  as  they  attain  new  heights  in  the  spirit- 
ual ascension.  Every  one  sees  an  enlarged  image 
of  himself  forward  of  him  and  above  him,  softened 
and  etherealized,  as  the  traveller  among  the  Alps 
sometimes  beholds  painted  on  the  clouds  at  a  dis- 
tance, in  wondrous  colors,  his  own  walking  figure, 
in  large,  glowing  outlines.  This  world  cannot  make 
good  for  us  this  ideal  of  moral  and  spiritual  char- 
acter. We  may  do  much ;  we  may  escape  the 
thrall  of  many  grovelling  tastes  and  tyrannous  hab- 
its; we  may  be  constantly  improving,  till  the  last 
grain  of  sand  has  run  from  our  hour-glass ;  every  step 
we  take  may  be  a  step  forward  and  upward,  a  new 
advance  into  the  glorious  empire  of  truth  and  holi- 
ness and  love.  But  we  would  not  live  alway  here, 
for  we  seek  after  a  sphere  more  congenial  to  these 
upward  tendencies  of  our  immortal  nature,  —  a 
sphere  free  from  the  gross  allurements  of  sense,  and 
the  cravings  of  passion, —  a  sphere  defiled  by  no  evil 
examples,  or  the  taint  of  sin,  but  pure,  holy,  bracing 


424  I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

to  the  spiritual  man,  invigorating  to  the  loftiest  de- 
sires of  our  souls.     Sick  of  a  world  where  so  many 
immoral  influences  are  around  the  soul,  besieging 
and  carrying  captive  its  virtue,  we  turn  to  that  fairer 
creation,  —  that  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  where- 
in dwelleth  righteousness,  prepared  for   those  who 
are  ready  to  enter  it;  we  burn  for  the  society  of  just 
and  good  men,  for  the  company  of  Jesus,  and  the 
nearer  and  more  manifest  presence  of  God.      For 
there  the  holy  relations  of  our  being  to  its  Author, 
to  its  Saviour,  and  to  our  fellow-creatures,  will  stand 
out  in  their  sublimity  ;  the  morning  mists  of  our  ex- 
istence, the   vapors  of  earth,  will   have   risen  and 
melted  away  before  the  glorious  light  of  eternity. 
Our  higher  nature,  with  all  its  powers  and  aspira- 
tions, will  be  called  into  a  new  and  happy  exercise, 
of  which  the  most  blessed   moments  on  earth  have 
given  us  hardly  an  idea.     In  view  of  such  a  prospect, 
—  and  it  is  one  the   heart  loves,  and  hope  reaches 
after,  and   Scripture  paints,  —  who  would  be  con- 
tented to  live  alway?  who  of  us  is  so  little  enamored 
of  things   of  a  divine  and  blissful  nature,  who  has 
so  few  risings    of  his  spiritual  nature  towards  its 
home  of  safety  and  rest,  progress  and  happiness,  that 
he  is  not  sometimes  thrilled  through  and  through, 
and  transported  almost  beyond  himself,  at  the  con- 
templation  of  the  serene,   starry   heavens,  or  at  a 
sublime  strain  of  music,  or  in  the  restless  and  far- 
voyaging  reveries   of  the  mind,  as  associated  with 
the  thought  of  the  everlasting  nature  of  the  soul, 


I    WOULD    NOT    LIVE    ALWAY.  425 

and  the  glorious  rewards  of  bliss  that  await  its 
purity  and  virtue,  beyond  all  that  has  been  experi- 
enced of  beauty,  or  ecstasy,  or  sublimity,  in  the  pres- 
ent state  ? 

Who,  then,  in  view  of  the  frailty  of  these  houses 
of  clay,  of  the  social  yearnings  of  the  heart  after  the 
loved  and  gone,  of  the  intellectual  energies  here  im- 
prisoned in  the  flesh,  and  in  view,  moreover,  of  the 
moral  nature,  the  spiritual  affections,  the  desires 
after  the  good  and  true  and  pure  and  beautiful,  that 
are  but  imperfectly  developed  and  poorly  satisfied 
here, — who,  in  view  of  the  peace  and  society  and 
progress  of  the  heavenly  world,  would  live  alway  ? 
None,  —  not  one.  There  cannot  be  one  so  false  to 
what  is  best  and  holiest  in  him,  as  not  sometimes 
to  have  these  thoughts  flit  across  the  mind,  and 
these  desires  steal  through  his  heart.  The  worst 
men,  —  the  scofling  infidel,  the  sensualist,  the  crimi- 
nal,—  as  the  workings  of  their  minds  have  been 
laid  bare  by  some  fearful  convulsion,  —  perhaps  by 
the  terrors  of  death,  —  have  shown  that  they  too 
had  thought  of  these  things;  that  into  the  web  of 
their  dark  spirits  were  woven  the  pure  golden  threads 
of  religion,  but  marred  and  broken  and  overshad- 
owed by  the  warp  and  woof  of  sin. 

We  would  not  live  alway,  —  none  would ;  —  the 
worst  prefer  to  die.  Even  the  murderer,  haunted 
by  bloody  associations  and  dogged  by  terrible  fears, 
surrenders  himself  to  justice  and  to  death,  the  sui- 
cide.    But  if  we  would  not  live  alway,  then  we 

37 


426  I   WOULD   NOT    LIVE    ALWAY. 

must  die ;  —  and  to  die  is  fearful  even  to  the  best 
prepared.  The  apprehension,  the  uncertainty,  the 
agony,  the  unknown  abyss,  the  leap  in  the  dark,  the 
coffin,  the  grave,  —  they  are  all  dreadful  to  nature. 
"We  start  back  from  them.  But  let  not  these  things 
disturb  us ;  there  is  a  faith  that  plucks  out  the  sting 
of  death,  a  resurrection  that  brings  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light. 

"  Would  we  shrink  from  the  path  which  the  prophets  of  God, 
Apostles,  and  martyrs  so  joyfully  trod  1 
While  brethren  and  friends  are  all  hastening  home. 
Like  a  spirit  unblest  o'er  the  earth  would  we  roaml 

"  It  is  better,  far  better,  with  gladness  to  go 
Where  pain,  sin,  and  sorrow  can  never  intrude  j 
And  yet  we  would  cheerfully  tarry  below, 
And,  expecting  the  better,  rejoice  in  the  good." 


THE    END. 


N-S- 


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if  DUE  oo  the  last  dmte  stamped  below 


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